Why Amos Kimunya Should not be in Cabinet

Amos Kimunya is a happy man now that the spotlight is not on him. Thanks to the Nakumatt and Sachangwan fires, maize scandals creeping on William Ruto and Kiraitu Murungi's Triton oil scandal, Amos Kimunya is a free man.

My main worry is that although he was "exonerated" Kenyan style from corruption and wrong doing in the sale of the Grand Regency, no attempt was made to resolve the loss of money in Grand Regency bank accounts.

At the time of handover of Grand Regency from Pattni to Central Bank of Kenya, the receiver managers claimed that there was over Kshs 300,000,000 ($4m). CBK alleged that there was no such money in those accounts.

Where did this money go?



Posted in , | Leave a comment

CMA and NSE trashes PWC report on Nyaga Stockbrokers

Business Daily reported that a report on the collapsed Nyaga stock brokers by PWC audit firm has been gathering dust at CMA shelves for the last three months. Over 70,000 investors are estimated to have lost Kshs 1.3 bn which may not be recovered.

NSE denies any knowledge of the report but James Wangunyu, the NSE chairman and the chairman of Standard Investment Bank trashed the report as well. James, whose firm, among other stock brokers, engage in a Kshs 200m "overnight lending" to troubled stock brokers like Nyaga sat at the NSE board which approved the Kshs 100m bailout package to Nyaga. The money was to be used expressly to repay clients monies but was diverted to clear some of the debts owed to James' firm by Nyaga stockbrokers.

Both PNU and ODM promised thorough reforms at CMA and NSE but nothing has been done as yet.



Leave a comment

Martha Karua answers William Ruto

William Ruto dragged Martha Karua's name into his sty. Ruto being haunted by the maize scandal and post election violence is a man under siege. Like a drowning man he is clutching to any floating straw in sight. His latest being Martha Karua.

Martha Karua ia a no nonsense straight shooter and today aimed her quivers at Ruto shrugging off his accusations thus: "No serious politician will seek a partnership with someone associated with corruption or violence. I will not carry excess baggage now or in the future. We should have an independent probe into the issue (maize scandal)".



5 Comments

MPs and Civil Servants to pay Tithe in March

After arrogantly refusing to pay tax, Right Honourable Prime Minister Raila Odinga has asked MPs and civil servants who earn more than Kshs 100,000 to pay tithe in March 2009. The 10% salary contribution will be towards alleviating the food crisis and famine in Kenya.

Anyone in Kenya who gets a salary of Kshs 100,000 and above pays 30% of this salary back to the government as tax. With the exception of MPs. So, in March civil servants will pay a tax of 40% on their salaries while MPs pay a voluntary tax of 10%.

If our 210 MPs paid tax on their income averagery 30% of Kshs 800,000 like the rest of Kenyans, the government will have an extra 2 million bags of strategic reserves to alleviate famine.

Raila Odinga is slowly becoming a student of Kibaki, wasting every opportunity begging and absconding.




Leave a comment

Martha Karua is out to finish me, cries Ruto

Jeff Koinange of K24's Capital Talk is back, on the bench.

William Ruto, the embattled Minister for Agriculture is all over the media giving interviews to all who care to listen.

Puzzling is Ruto's allegation on Capital Talk that the witch hunt to finish him is orchestrated by one Martha Wangari Karua and it is all about 2012 politics. Ms Wangari allegedly met with Ruto at one of her friends place where she advanced the idea of cooperating for with Ruto to secure the 2012 elections. Ruto had not time for such nonsense. Wangari is avenging and clearing her way to succeed Emilio Kibaki. What better way than to use the maize scandal and current famine to finish off this "front runner". For this reason among others W. Lord Ruto will not resign or step aside to facilitate investigations.

Martha was also accused of orchestrating a finishing-off netball for Amos Kimunya.

The more W. Lord Ruto denies his hand in the maize scandal the more he makes us believe that where there is smoke there is fire. His picking of Martha Karua is bound to generate heat in the coming weeks. the fact that he did not refer to Oburu Odinga, Raila's elder brother, whose viewpoint is close to Martha's on the maize scandal is telling. Neither did he go vicioulsy for Dr Khalwale's jugular as he did for Martha.

But Ruto is one of the sacred cows in this coalition who must be handled with extreme care for he is brittle. He is not any other sacrificial lamb entwined in a bush waiting to secure Isaac from the Abraham's knife. Some councillors from Nakuru made this point clear last week. So has a large section of Rift valley allied MPs.

Raila knows all to well who holds him by the balls. He has not moved with spped to investigate the maize scandal the way he did with the Grand Regency saga where he formed a committee at 4, committee met at 5 and by 7 the report and verdict was ready for the 9 o'clock news. Orengo, the accuser chaired the committee. You would expect him to appoint Dr Khalwale to chair the maize scandal committee. No, the investigations will be done by an international forensic expert to peruse all NCPB financial transactions, not a boardroom consensus like the Grand regency one. Whether the forensics scope will include Public Ethics Act provisions is another issue.

Ruto does not mind the Hague or the tribunal. Any of those is game for him, he says. As long as there is no selective justice. That means he must be taken with the clear label of "This side up". Selective justice will be applied if he is taken to the Hague or tribunal while those who stole the election or manipulated the process or the outcome or whose inaction caused the violence are not apprehended as well. Going by Ababu's allegations last week, it is easy to guess what Ruto is implying. Afterall Ababu is now available for higher, isn't he?





Posted in , , | 1 Comment

How to make Kshs 85m ($1.1m) in a day

Drive into Kenya's National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), the government body in charge of maize/grain storage.

Order 100,000 bags of maize at a cost of Kshs 1,750. Make a call to a maize miller and offer to sell 100,000 bags of maize at the price of Kshs 2,600. Advise the miller to make two cheques, preferably bank transfers. First, a cheque/transfer of Kshs 85,000,000 to you and another Kshs 175,000,000 to NCPB. Do not waste energy pondering how come the government through the NCPB bought the maize at more than Kshs 2,600 per bag.

Give instructions to NCPB managers to release to the miller the 100,000 bags of maize you have just ordered and bought.

Drive out of NCPB and enjoy your hard earned sweat money.

For the plan to work effectively, ensure there is a call from the Ministry of Agriculture to the NCPB managers prior to your arrival or arrive armed with a hand written note on the Ministry of Agriculture's letter head.

Why are you poor, oh ye Kenyans of little ideas.



Posted in , | Leave a comment

Lemuel Mwangi: Pluck the Mungiki Seedling or Prepare to Cut the Tree

What would you do if you cross the line first, but the victory belt is awarded a non-participant athlete or just a person in the crowd? Would you stand humiliation?

In the political screens of a sovereign East Africa nation, there are developmental changes in the power of deciding and saying. Those who decide would only be affixed the seal of a machete better known as dagger or ‘Panga’ while the announcer stand behind the seal of an elected government to address the citizens.

It is worth wondering how a machete seal would look like. Not too long into the future, Kenyans might be surfacing into the reality of this unfamiliar but probable expectation. Over the past three decades, Kenyans have seen terror evolve from the era of possibility to certainty; only these terrorists are bombing their own houses.

I wonder if Kenyans know which sector of the economy is growing at the highest rate. Well, it is the outrageous ‘blood’ department. The only difference being that no donor is ever willing to drain his red body fluid in to the earth. It is no wonder that every Kenyan now need at least a body guard to walk through every dark corner.

Although our men in uniform are well armed, they are crippled by a very miraculous but dangerous disease, corruption. No wonder they spend most of their day in the armory while citizens are being slaughtered. I wonder how much they are paid. All because of one name that has no place in the dictionary at its tribe of origin, but has managed to earn worldwide popularity.

Imagine a whole town at stand still, just because a two year old has learned the first name in life - mungiki. One mention and the whole town’s businesses close for the night, even though it is barely midday. To me, it seems like Kenya is operating on a curfew lottery with a ‘new’ government so powerful that a baby might opt to stay put in the womb at delivery. I do not say this for granted, but if I were given an option at birth, I would not have dared venturing into the world of manslaughter, period!

Looking at the Kenya of today, the elected office has been turned into a ‘spokesman’ institution while authority lies in the hands of terror gangs. Do Kenyans really know how many killers are on the loose? Mungiki alone has at least a million of them. Add ‘taliban’, Kamjesh, and the rest and you will be amazed by the number.

Looking at one side of the problem, the fertile hills at the heartland of Kenya have seen the better part of its population owing loyalty to the Mungiki gang. A simple but complicated oath is turning kikuyu households into butcheries with a whole population being trained to be human butchers. It does not end there but goes on to cannibalism.

While the government is doing nothing about this, the ‘Mau Mau’ of the 20th century are filling their bellies with human fresh with genitals forming the sweetest part- or maybe nutritious. Blood has now become a common ingredient among the million plus ‘human’ butcher whose only identity is practical misery.

With the alarming growth of the Mungiki, human steak might just be a favorite among patrons at the many restaurants in Kenya. While the administration ought to be fighting the growing cannibal ideology, the big men are part of the count in tasting the new item in the menu. That is where Kenya is, and I do not know where it will be tomorrow.

In less than a generation into the future, Kenya might just be an epitome of agony, time in which the color at the center of their flag will be evident in rivers as they wind their way from the hill at the heartland of Kenya to spread influence in to the now almost conquered territories. Dreadlocks will be a trademark identity, sniffing tobacco a bus ticket, machetes a part of dressing and murder a daily chore with the high court closing, since no one will get to the bar, criminal or suspect. Grave yards will close and the normal RIP being change to ‘See you steak at my dinner plate’.

There will be no postmortems, since all death will be a result of the death game, a chore of that generation. Death is already being a penalty for members of the Kikuyu community who are not willing to join the ‘Mungiki’. How many more people are yet to die? Where is the future of Kenya?

It is time the world chipped in. I do not know how long the world will take to understand this, but if it so believes in humanity, then let no more people perish in the misery and agony of a murderous death. Let there not be another al-Qaida born in Kenya.

Judging from past events the Kenya administration has proved unable to contain its own crisis therefore giving the world an upper hand to come in and pluck the young group before it develops leaves in other parts of the world. What does the world say? May the answer be practical.



1 Comment