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.
