Kibaki's 500 million Mweiga home built with taxpayers funds: Will he ever occupy it?
These days Kenyans are virtually shock-proof. No news no matter how big will shock them. But one particular story is about to break that will shatter the shock-proof glass.
I stumbled onto this information while following up on what appeared to be an insignificant development. Indeed one of my readers highlighted the fact that I was barking up the wrong tree and indulging in "speculative dishonesty".
Before I tell you what they said let me make it clear that I really treasure emails from my dear readers. Even the abusive ones (thank God I have a thick skin for criticism more so because my record speaks for itself and always vindicates me. Weeks and sometimes months later haters are always forced to eat their words as the "rubbish" I wrote comes to pass). What would any writer treasure more than the feedback they get from the very people who read what they have to say? More so in today's world where there is so much choice as far as reading is concerned and so if somebody makes the time to read what I have to say it is a great honour that I will always deeply appreciate and treasure. I thank you most sincerely that you are reading this.
The reader wrote the following email to me recently in response to an article I wrote here;
"Why would you expect KIBAKI, who has lived in Nairobi since 1958 and in his home in Muthaiga for more than 30 years' to retire to a different location (to do what in OTHAYA?).
Is that investigative reporting or speculative dishonesty?"
Well my response is that people are creatures of habit and become fairly predictable when you have been following their actions for a long time.
Moi and Kibaki are as different as night and day. Moi is a workaholic who still gets up before 4am every morning. And yet when he left the presidency he was flown to his Kabarak home where he spent some time relaxing before he was ever seen in Nairobi again.
Kibaki never gets out of bed before 11am (although he is younger than Moi) and during his presidency key government officials were forced to learn to operate around his limited time work day. The government worked slower and decisions took much longer to be made. The former president also loves to go to Mombasa to relax and will always be found at the Coastal town every Christmas without fail. So what you would have expected to happen is that he would have at least spent a few days in Mombasa after his retirement. He did NOT. Kibaki has never left Nairobi or seen the need to relax after a presidency that took a terrible toll on his health.
Secondly the Kshs 500 million palatial home built for him with taxpayers funds in Mweiga was not done in secret. Clearly that is the place he plans to spend most of his retirement relaxing in. Yet he hasn't gotten there yet.
The truth is that Mwai Kibaki is facing the biggest crisis of his entire life. This is what has kept him from taking even a brief break. He cannot afford to just now. In my latest raw notes I investigate deeply what this problem is and using the latest shocking report (received late last night), I analyze his chances of weathering this storm and getting out of the crisis which are very slim indeed, hence the big screaming headline you must expect at any time.
You read here weeks ago that there was immense pressure from certain quarters to ensure that the CORD nominee for the Makueni senatorial seat would be Kethi Kilonzo. So you were hardly surprised when that news broke yesterday. Now you are about to read something that will break in the mainstream media maybe weeks from today and it will send shock waves right across the entire continent of Africa and beyond. Do ensure that you get my raw notes today.
What's going on at the Daily Nation?
The same reader who wrote me the email I have quoted above also said in the same message;
"Investigative journalism died with the Weekly Review of HILARY NG'WENO, the Economic Review of PETER WARUTERE tried but they too folded.It is expensive and requires well trained journalists and NOT the type of half baked staff found in our media houses. Moreover, Kenyans are a fickle type they are better off reading "rumours" of the STAR newspaper rather than news."
Here I agree with most of what he has said. It is rather obvious that investigative journalism in Kenya is dead. However I beg to differ slightly. The Daily Nation for instance has some of the most talented journalists in Africa and even beyond (certainly NOT half-baked). Resources are also not a problem for the giant cash rich Nation media group. So they have absolutely no excuse for not delivering the kind of journalism that Kenya needs very badly just now.
But instead the Daily Nation has been publishing very strange stories in recent times from outright lies to the kind of stories designed to do damage that cannot be repaired.
The most recent example of this is the Ruto Kshs 100 million leased jet saga. The writer of the story did not seek to get a comment from the government and nobody will remember that the government has now denied the story let alone believe them. The damage has already been done and it is irreparable. Kenyans across the political divide and many within the JUBILEE coalition are livid about the wanton wastage in such a poor country as our banana republic and nobody wants the facts to get in the way of this juicy controversy.
What exactly is going on at the Nation media group? Who supplied the damaging Ruto story and why? We all know what kind of a person the deputy president is and his past sins are well documented but that is not the issue here is it? The really important story here is that the public are being fed with the kind of stories some powerful people want them to hear. My detailed raw notes digs deep into this issue and if you have been religiously swallowing everything published in the Nation you will be extremely disturbed by what I have unearthed.
ICC and Commander In chief (CIC)who was the resident of the House on the hill as relates to UK's case?
ReplyDeleteNyanza si Kenya
ReplyDeleteChris,
ReplyDeleteSo KK ceased being a political blog and all you do is ADVERTIZE for your so-called RAW NOTES?
Good luck mate.
The issue in question is about Kibaki's 500 million Mweiga home that was built with taxepayers funds.
ReplyDeleteA palatial home that will remain underutilized or unused due to the fact that Mzee Mwai Kibaki has other mansions in Nairobi and Mombasa that have served him so well in the last forty-five years (45 yrs).
Further, he does not have any personal nor social desires, whatsoever, to convert the Ksh 500 million mansion into another one of those Mweiga's version of Valhalla, (the rest is history as it will forver be known).
On the one hand, Kenya ni Kenya, and all the patriot daughters and sons of Kenya understand what has been entailed upon them since December 12, 1963.
So, wonder why a rational person or people would yearn to fly out of a frying pan - that has already qualified to be classified as a "banana republic" by all accounts - of their own making and land into a perpetual bonfire in a neighbouring country where matoke is a culinary staple of the nation?
Anyhow, if "Nyanza si Kenya" then certain misguided elements from the region must be dying to become part of - attach themselves to - a neighbouring landlocked country (with a never ending "bonfire") that is just as enthically and culturally diverse as Kenya, the so called unwanted political "pan".
Unlike Kenya, a fifty year old nation that is still struggling so hard, thanks to the new constitution, to wean itself from the unpalatable political diet of self-inflicted growing pains, impunity, corruption, naked greed, poor governance, mediocrity galore, and the dreaded endemic DEP - divisive ethnic politics.
The other former British protectorate with an estimated population of 32,369,600, a geopolitical region where the Luganda language is widely used to the point where it is now the de facto national-cum-official language, is a country that still finds itself under the watchful eyes of one East African stateman.
On the other hand, let them - whoever they are - feel free to hold a regional referendum at their own convenience and costs, if they still feel so passionately about crossing over to the other side of the geopolitical divide of their own choice.
While at the same time being conscious of the fact that whatever land(s) that has been part and parcel of the republic of Kenya since December 12th, 1963, will remain the same and be left behind intact at all cost.
For their information, the surrounding areas and especially the portions of Lake Nyanza that exist within the national borders of Tanzania and Uganda are not part of Kenya, however, the portion bordering on Kenya is within Kenya's official borders.
Kwa hivyo, Kenya ni Kenya na eneo hilo la Ziwa Nyanza ni Kenya pia kwa vyovyote vile. Wapende wasipende!
No more, no less!
One particular story is about to break that will shatter the shock-proof glass.
ReplyDeleteChris,
What kind of story is it? Why don't you go ahead and provide some of us with a preview in order to prepare those of us who will be left shocked and awed, on how to deal with its effects once the bombshell of a story has taken its toll?
There are those of us who are expecting surprising news rather than the sudden upsetting kind that always leave some of us tailspinning for several minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months.
Otherwise, it is always a very sweet pleasure to savor whatever particular breaking news that ends up shattering our collective mzee kobe shells of complacency.
And any particular news that is about to break is good for public entertainment as long as it does give some of us a terrible shock, let alone precipitate a sudden disturbance that will cause instability in our country's ragile economy.
C'on break the news and let it shatter those of us who are prone to suffer from post traumatic story disorder.
After all, public consumption of breaking news that is shattering does come with all sorts of labelled risks where mental health is concerned.
What kind of storm is on the horizon? Is it an executive cyclone from the recent past? Some prominant family tornado of some of kind? A politically related hurricane that has been brewing for some time? A real monsoon of problems for a well known personality? Or a Tsunami that had been closeted for far too long at the public's expense? Mmmmmmm.
ReplyDeleteChris are you by any chance promising a mountain of timely news to your readership, only to end up delivering a hill of what had already been know in some public circles, or even taken place when it comes to the highly anticipated ripple effects that will be propelled by shock waves right across the entire continent of Africa and beyond?
ReplyDeleteseems the full hearing of the ICC cases are not disappearing:
ReplyDeleteInternational Criminal Court constitutes Two Trial chambers for the two Kenyan cases
May the victims get as much attention as the the 3 suspects.
Banana Republic, Inpunity Den, Injustice Country. Obama cant visit this.
ReplyDeleteMurderers in Bungoma, Thugs in Thika, Prostitutes in Mombasa, Chief Injustice (Kenyans love me judiciary),100 Millions Air-Craft to visit Africa for their own cases, 500mill house for fence sitters, Free milk from own farm, Pattni off the hook, Tribalism Scandals and scandals. Where is the country going to? Othaya?
ReplyDeleteThe voices of reason, heads of wisdom, eyes of foresight and all members of the inner cycle of 'Wavinya Council of Women' should do everything in their power and prevail over Keith Kilonzo's undisclosed move or intended pronouncement before she ends up making any perosnal blunders in the next couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteThe aforementioned should let the daughter of the late Senator Mutula Kilonzo know that any form of political inheritance should be a thing to be frowned upon in this day and age, especially in a post-2010 Kenya.
The guardians of all shrines of Makueni and rest of Ukambani, including the gate keepers of all closed and soon to be opened political doors in Ukambani of 2018, should be courageous enough to let Keith Kilonzo know that she will be better off staking her rightful claim in the realm of legal matters rather than end up being bogged down in the murky waters of political by-election in Makueni.
In the meantime, the majority of the people of Makueni should be respected and left to decide who among who among them will be suitable to be their next representative to take over the vacant senatorial seat that was vacated by the late Senator Mutula Kilonzo due to reasons and circumstances beyond his control and earthly imagination.
When all is said and done, there must be some other well educated and highly qualified women from Makueni who are willing, ready and able to duel it out one campaign punch after another in their bid to represent Makueni in the Senate without any shadow or pinch of political patronage from regional godfathers who usually issue their so called blessings with so many strings attached.
Pardon the interruption, while an answer to the following disturbing question is awaited from Chris of Kumekucha at a later period.
ReplyDeleteWell, is the so called trip of the son of Obama to "Africa" the one that was meant to send shock waves across the entire continent of Africa and beyond?
Some fo us would hate to hear it said that we were told us so at one point or another, right here on Kumekucha.
People like the son of Obama remind some of us of certain characters who work in the international media houses, and other institutions like the WB, WHO, UN, IMF, FAO, and what have you.
Talking of characters that exist in all colours and shades and have perfected the personal art of eargely portaying themselves as "Kenyan born" at the slightest opportunity, especially when it comes to advancing their professional careers, retelling exotic narratives about their personal family histories, or being the sons and daughters of living or departed Kenyan parents, in order to gain some sort of advantage.
And they always do it as they shamelessly sale themselves in a very self serving and calculated manner, using the Kenyan Tag in order to attain whatever it is they so desire at any given moment.
Yet in the end, they always turn around and treat everything Kenyan as if it were mavi ya mburu kenge, senge, kondoo, mbuzi, ngite, kuku or punda.
For instance, there are people from my father's former village whose sons and daughters - in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and early-mid 50s - who were born and raised in the Middle East, Europe and North America, that are not any different from the way son of Obama has behaved due to political expendiency or other reasons.
These are people, only Kenyan by name, who will travel with their families and seasonal friends to nearby places like Zanzibar, Madagascar, Seychelles Islands, Reunion Island, Comoros Islands, and South Africa, where they stay for days or weeks without ever bothering to step foot on the land or in the waters near their so called ancestral lands, or land of their fathers.
Anyway, let the son of Obama continue to make his huge sociopolitical blunders for whatever reasons known to him and his disgnated crew of wise political advisors.
As for those of us who kind of end up feeling disrespected, spited, treated as stepping stones and wet rags by our very own so called flesh and blood, we always take refuge in a question that is usually asked by many Kenyans living in the country and abroad, which is, how important (beneficial or development wise) are their calculated trips to neighbouring African countries and islands in the Indian Ocean?
At the end of the day, all people in my father's former village would rather only one daughter in the name of Mrs Theresa Bonoreri Olwenyi who cares more about her people, rather than have fly-by-night children - with PhDs or whatever political/professional clout - who do not have the heart nor will to pay homage to the remote "African" villages that birthed their their fathers and mothers against all odds.
Regrets we have had them but there will be very few to remeber, because of Africa will continue to give birth to more future daughters and sons like Mrs Theresa Bonoreri Olwenyi of Ushin Gishu.
The kind of daughters and sons who have mastered the art of going beyond talking the talk, and settled on uplifting many people in order to walk the walk along with them along the path of development for years to come.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteWhat is this business about numb-shocking news that is about to break?