By Nicholas Olambo
2016 has not been a good year for the arrogant and controversial political analyst Mutahi Ngunyi. Mutahi has been known for his rapper attitude and ‘dissing’ analyses on Cord leader Raila Odinga. He once described him as ‘a busy house girl’ in the grand coalition government. He was alleging that Mr. Odinga wanted to be seen doing everything including nothing. He always appeared to have a bone to pick with Rail. Ngunyi is the brain behind generation of ‘tyranny of numbers’ hypothesis.
His blunt utterances always caused uproar like suggesting that Raila should be jailed over Uganda sugar deal and calling Luo community poverty stricken. ‘Raila should be put on trial. The Judge: Poverty stricken Luos…. The Charge: selfishness. Selfishness, selfishness, selfishness…’ he wrote on a tweet. His political analysis career is ‘Raila based’ giving him all sorts demeaning descriptions like equating him to a slow punctured car. He is now cornered in the infamous NYS saga where shs 791 million was misappropriated. Ngunyi’s firm did business with NYS and was overpaid.
His blunt utterances always caused uproar like suggesting that Raila should be jailed over Uganda sugar deal and calling Luo community poverty stricken. ‘Raila should be put on trial. The Judge: Poverty stricken Luos…. The Charge: selfishness. Selfishness, selfishness, selfishness…’ he wrote on a tweet. His political analysis career is ‘Raila based’ giving him all sorts demeaning descriptions like equating him to a slow punctured car. He is now cornered in the infamous NYS saga where shs 791 million was misappropriated. Ngunyi’s firm did business with NYS and was overpaid.
He is finding no defense in Raila, instead he claims he is shocked why he was overpaid shs 11.87 million. He told the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he did not know how NYS Picked his firm to do it’s restructuring and if it was single sourced. Guilty Mutahi claims that he only learnt from the auditor general that he was overpaid in March 2015 but he assumed it was from a different client since he had been paid his dues prior to that.
He is finding no defense in Raila, instead he claims he is shocked why he was overpaid shs 11.87 million. He told the National Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he did not know how NYS Picked his firm to do it’s restructuring and if it was single sourced. Guilty Mutahi claims that he only learnt from the auditor general that he was overpaid in March 2015 but he assumed it was from a different client since he had been paid his dues prior to that.
The Mutahi defending himself now is so different from the one with the foul mouth, he looks rained on and begging for mercy with weak threats to sue ministry officials who made the mysterious payments. He swore on his mom’s bible that he is clean. Is he clean? This is the same guy who authoritatively said in an interview with the Nairobian that he makes money in CCP (corruption, consultancy and politics).
The Mutahi defending himself now is so different from the one with the foul mouth, he looks rained on and begging for mercy with weak threats to sue ministry officials who made the mysterious payments. He swore on his mom’s bible that he is clean. Is he clean? This is the same guy who authoritatively said in an interview with the Nairobian that he makes money in CCP (corruption, consultancy and politics).
Mutahi was responding to a question on the source of his money to rent lavish offices at the MMID Studio House in Museum Hill and pay his staff of mostly young, gorgeous and sophisticated looking women. The arrogant analyst claimed that The consultancy house (his firm) does a lot of work from bodies like governments and IGAD through referrals across 18 countries. Corruption is indeed his source of income and has finally ended his arrogance and career; no one listens to Ngunyi anymore.
Twitter is witnessing an increasing number of government requests for data involving user accounts.
The company released its latest transparency report, which aims to help consumers better understand tweet removal requests and copyright notices as well as government information requests. With each report, the number of government requests continues to rise, and the US government continues to make more requests than any other government.
This is the drawback of using social networks and other online services. The information you share can come back to haunt you. In most of the requests the IP logins tops the requests.
Kenya tops the list of African Governments Seeking closure on users. This is done through the National Intelligence Service should that have a criminal case against a user to pursue. Here’s the graphical representation of the requests posted by GoK. Despite the requests, Twitter in the last 6 months granted the GoK access to either of the accounts they asked for.
By Nicholas Olambo
Politicians will always say that Eldoret is a cosmopolitan town to win your vote but the reality is way far from that. A keen observer can guess a possible scenario if an individual from a community outside North Rift vies for a top political post, the ‘madoa doa’ narrative will begin. Negative ethnicity is the order of the day in this part of the world where public institutions are now turned into ethnic joints.
It so sad that elected leaders from the region idle to an extent of hanging coats in their office then gather as tribal cocoons and unlawfully storm a public institution. What happened Tuesday was pathetic; a section of North Rift leaders stormed Moi University main campus in Kesses, Eldoret to protest against the appointment of Prof. Laban Ayiro as the acting vice chancellor of the institution for three months awaiting replacement of former VC Prof. Richard Mibey.
It so sad that elected leaders from the region idle to an extent of hanging coats in their office then gather as tribal cocoons and unlawfully storm a public institution. What happened Tuesday was pathetic; a section of North Rift leaders stormed Moi University main campus in Kesses, Eldoret to protest against the appointment of Prof. Laban Ayiro as the acting vice chancellor of the institution for three months awaiting replacement of former VC Prof. Richard Mibey.
Rogue leaders, members of the staff and residents were led by Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago and his Elgeyo Marakwet counterpart Alex Tolgos and Counter Assembly Speaker Isaac Terer and other Mps from the region who had nothing constructive to do on a working day. They went ahead and vowed to stop 32nd graduation ceremony slated for 23rd September 2016. They are demanding for the appointment of a substantive VC based on merit, fronting for Prof. Isaac Kosgey whom they claim emerged top in the recruitment interviews and should be appointed on permanent basis.
Rogue leaders, members of the staff and residents were led by Uasin Gishu governor Jackson Mandago and his Elgeyo Marakwet counterpart Alex Tolgos and Counter Assembly Speaker Isaac Terer and other Mps from the region who had nothing constructive to do on a working day. They went ahead and vowed to stop 32nd graduation ceremony slated for 23rd September 2016. They are demanding for the appointment of a substantive VC based on merit, fronting for Prof. Isaac Kosgey whom they claim emerged top in the recruitment interviews and should be appointed on permanent basis.
The rogue leaders are claiming that ‘an outsider’ has been appointed to head the Eldoret based university by the Education CS Fred Matiang’i. Moi University is known for being the most ethicized institution in Kenya. The official language from the gate, lavatory, staff and to the students is Kalenjin. The toothless bulldog that is National Cohesion and Integration Commission does nothing but its usual incredible bark. The Commission’s Chairman Francis Ole Kaparo addressed the media condemning the action that depicts how public institutions have been ethicized.
The rogue leaders are claiming that ‘an outsider’ has been appointed to head the Eldoret based university by the Education CS Fred Matiang’i. Moi University is known for being the most ethicized institution in Kenya. The official language from the gate, lavatory, staff and to the students is Kalenjin. The toothless bulldog that is National Cohesion and Integration Commission does nothing but its usual incredible bark. The Commission’s Chairman Francis Ole Kaparo addressed the media condemning the action that depicts how public institutions have been ethicized.
The commission is investigation the actions by the leaders and should they be found guilty of contravening the provision of the NCIC Act, a disciplinary action will be recommended by the sleeping commission. What is really there to investigate? One may ask ‘It is stunning, abhorrent, and disgusting to see leaders who should be on the forefront in upholding the constitution, stoop that low’. Ole Kaparo said.
The unpolished actions by rogue, tribal and idling leaders come at time when the country is struggling to find a solution to continuous fire problem in secondary schools that saw over 120 dormitories razed last term by rogue students. Matiang’I’s roadside declarations have been blamed on the fires in high schools the same way his choice to appoint an acting VC is facing protests.
WARNING: Some of the images you might find graphic
On Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, the Somali militant group al-Shabab carried out an assault on Kenya’s Westgate Mall in one of the worst terrorist attacks in the country’s history. A group of young gunmen stalked the halls and stores of the upscale Nairobi shopping center, and methodically murdered at least 67 people. News of the attack seized the world’s attention, dominating international media coverage for days.
But much of that reporting was confused and contradictory, mirroring the litany of false and misleading statements made by Kenyan authorities. There were between 10 and 15 gunmen, the interior minister said. Two or three of them were Americans, said another cabinet minister. Together they took hostages, used heavy explosives, and pulled off a three-day siege, according to other government sources. Except none of these things were true.
Far from a dramatic three-day standoff, the assault on the Westgate Mall lasted only a few hours, almost all of it taking place before Kenyan security forces even entered the building. When they finally did, it was only to shoot at one another before going on an armed looting spree that resulted in the collapse of the rear of the building, destroyed with a rocket-propelled grenade. And there were only four gunmen, all of whom were buried in the rubble, along with much of the forensic evidence.
During the roughly three-and-a-half hours that the killers were loose in the mall, there was virtually no organized government response. But while Kenyan officials prevaricated, an unlikely coalition of licensed civilian gun owners and brave, resourceful individual police officers took it upon themselves to mount a rescue effort. Pieced together over 10 months from more than three dozen interviews with survivors, first responders, security officers, and investigators, the following account brings their story to life for the first time since the horrific terrorist attack occurred exactly two years ago.
One of the victims wreaths on pain
By late Saturday afternoon, all four gunmen were holed up in a storeroom at the back of Nakumatt. They never came out again. Most of the at least 67 people who were killed at Westgate died in the first hour of the attack, before any rescue effort had even begun. Kenyan security forces did not launch their operation until 4:00 p.m., by which time it was already too late: Most of those who would escape had already escaped; most of those who would be wounded had already been struck; and most of those who would die were already dead. It is likely that many of the victims bled to death in the slow hours between the start of the attack and the arrival of help.
The elite Recce Squad, eventually entered from the rooftop car park. Kenyan soldiers entered from the ground floor. Neither group was in communication with the other. Soon afterwards, there was a shootout on the first floor between the Recce Squad and the soldiers, in which the police unit’s commander was killed and another two officers were wounded. The remaining Recce Squad members pulled out of the operation in disgust, and the army, too, withdrew.
Recce Squad inside Westgate mall, Nairobi
After the friendly fire incident, Westgate became a military operation. Armored personnel carriers with heavy machine guns patrolled in front of the mall; soldiers with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades moved in and out; and sporadic gunfire and explosions echoed from within. On Sunday, Kenya’s interior minister claimed that there were as many as 15 attackers and that the siege was ongoing. By that time, however, the mall was mostly under the army’s control. On Monday, a rocket fired by the Kenyan army collapsed the back of the mall, dropping the rooftop car park into the basement, pancaking the room where the terrorists had taken shelter and throwing a thick plume of smoke into the Nairobi sky. The fire burned for days. Parked cars with full fuel tanks fell into the gaping hole and exploded like bombs.
The heat, toxins, and structural instability of the building kept FBI agents brought in to run the forensic investigation from gathering any evidence for weeks. When they finally set to work, what they found were the charred remains of three bodies, alongside parts of three assault rifles, in roughly the location where the storeroom had been — and far from any other human remains. The fourth gunman is also believed to have died in the fire. The fragments of spine and jaw recovered by the FBI were so burned, and at such high temperatures, that neither teeth nor DNA would have likely offered much clue to the assailants’ identities.
KDF soldiers making an entrance to the mall
Before and after blowing up the mall, the Kenyan army looted shops, broke open safes, and emptied tills. The looting was captured on closed-circuit television cameras and reported by business owners after they returned to the mall and found their shops ransacked and stock missing. A public inquiry into the disastrously ineffective security response was promised but never delivered. Somehow, Kenya’s interior minister managed to cling to his job for another 15 months. The army chief retired this spring, with full honors. Westgate reopened in July, nearly 22 months after the attack. Kenyan soldiers are still in Somalia, but they are now part of the multinational African Union force that protects the Somali government and fights al-Shabab, which still controls some parts of the countryside.
In April of this year, al-Shabab gunmen launched an attack in Garissa, in Kenya’s northeast, that was strikingly similar to Westgate. Four armed men broke into a university campus and rounded up students in a dormitory. After letting the Muslims go, they executed the others. One hundred and forty-eight people died that day, almost all of them young students. It was al-Shabab’s deadliest ever attack. For Kenya, Westgate was just the beginning.
Some of those caught up taking positions as dead bodies lay beside
The Commission of Inquiry promised by President Uhuru Kenyatta in the days following the attack has failed to materialize. A report on the attack tabled by a Joint Parliamentary Committee was rejected by the National Assembly. The KDF was reported to have prepared a report on its actions during the siege but this is yet to be published.
With the truth On What really transpired in the mall and questions hanging as to whether the terrorists were really killed, what have we learnt as a country to prevent any of such attacks, how equipped are the officers. The victims both surviving needed more than just financial compensation but the entire truth which will remain a mystery from the trend of events. Key questions that will not leave minds soon; Could the attack have been prevented? Why did they have to collapse the roof? What happened to the terrorists? Did they have a plan? When were the terrorists defeated? Could more people have been saved?
The killing of Businessman turned anti-corruption crusader, Jacob Juma is one that continue to cause more questions as intrigues continue to pile, many questions with no tangible forthcoming answers.
Jacob who was according to police reports gunned down by hitmen while headed home in May 5, is yet to get off the public’s eye who’ve waited with baited breath to know what exactly happened.
However, the wait could take much longer just like the rest of historical prominent assassinations. Detectives from the Investigations Department has thrown in the towel saying their investigations had hit a dead end writing to the Office of Public Prosecution to ignite a public inquest into Jacob’s murder in a bid to unravel the mysteries.
The DPP has since refered back the files to DCI Muhoro to do more investigations turning down the tribunal request they had made. Tobiko has instructed the detectives to do more including questioning witnesses not included in the submitted list.
Sirisia MP John Walukhe whom Juma’s relatives pointed fingers at for having bad blood with the slain has also been questioned amongst others like Jimmy Wanjigi, Ahmednasir and others in connection with the murder.
Jacob Juma is believed to have been fell by the State’s owned hitsquad and Opposition leaders have in several occasions reiterated that Juma was killed for his position in exposing corruption within Jubilee and especially the Eurobond saga.
Knowing the history of this country, it will take a complete system overhaul for the truth on what exactly happened and who killed Juma the rest are just sideshows to buy time. Extrajudicial killings has been on the rise in recent times a worrying trend.
Politics is unpredictable game so they say and a day in politics can be equated to a century. Nairobi Gubernatorial Race has attracted many especially from the Jubilee quarter with the three Waweru, Sonko and Sakaja being the most visible as the front runners. Though they’ve been seen walking hand in hand in their campaigns it’s no doubt that rivalry over the Jubilee ticket has been real.
Dennis Waweru who is the first to have kicked off his campaigns as early as IEBC voters registration where together with Woman Rep Mary Ng’ang’a erected billboards allover the city at a cost of Sh30M according to sources, has months later lost the plot completely.
In recent times,Waweru in line with his Kiambu cronies likes of Maina Kamanda whom he had under his wings went berserk on the rumors that Statehouse was rooting for a Wamalwa ticket. Its still clear in minds how they belched out their discomfort lamenting how an outsider as Wamalwa would be fronted for the Nairobi seat. The protests went for days and eventually cooled off following interventions by the President and assurance that nominations would be fair.
President Uhuru in a conversation with Dennis Waweru
However information gathered by Kenya Insights from a number of highly placed sources in the Jubilee Party innuendos paints as a perfect picture as to why the Banker Waweru has completely been wiped out of the race and the media.
As the squabbles ensued, Waweru sponsored some villagers to act as Kikuyu elders bundled them into a Thika Road hotel to annoint him as a community elder and also an endorsement to the Gubernatorial seat. The fake incident irked he real elders who have since denounced him for being disrespectful and ordered him to ask for forgiveness by appeasing the gods for cleansing.
But Waweru’s troubles don’t end at that, the rich banker according to information in our hold, made the political suicide move when he told off President Uhuru and the Mount Kenya mafia that he could make it without their endorsement and that Dagoreti votes are his and he has the muscles to gunner enough by himself.
Dennis Waweru told President Uhuru off to go back to Gatundu and leave Nairobi to its owners. Hon Waweru foolishly told the president that if there is any seat he (Uhuru) can give, it is the Gatundu constituency and not any other anywhere else in the country and definitely NOT Nairobi governor seat.
This was read a a a sign of disrespect to Uhuru who’s the defacto leader of the Kikuyu community and an insult to the Mount Kenya mafia who calls the shots in this game regardless.
Kenya Insights is told, Waweru has now made powerful enemies that his political future has been deemed and sealed earlier than he could’ve thought. Even during the Jubilee Party launch, he was nowhere to be seen as his counterparts enjoyed free publicity. “Waweru is a dead meat forget about him, he won’t get the gubernatorial seat, the parliamentary seat either. He’s cooked.” A source concludes to Kenya Insights.
Perhaps someone didn’t remind Waweru of the wise African saying that a child can play with his mother’s breast but not his father’s testicles.
The frontier market of Kenya isn’t often on U.S. or European investors’ radar. It should be. It offers a timely reminder of financial markets’ complacency about the risk of populism; and the attractiveness of bashing banks to win votes.
East Africa’s most advanced economy has introduced a law setting a cap on commercial lending rates and a floor on deposit payout rates, an instant squeeze on margins that sent shares of Kenyan banks to their lowest in years. Investors were clearly unprepared for a measure designed to make banks poorer — or less greedy, depending on your point of view — in the face of what Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta described as ordinary citizens’ frustrations about the cost of credit and earnings from deposits.
Kenya Crush
Bank stocks have plunged since the announcement of a law to cap lending interest rates
Source: Bloomberg
There’s no denying Kenyan banks make rich returns. The country’s largest bank by assets, KCB, has a return on equity of 24.7 percent, according to Bloomberg data, while rivals Cooperative Bank and Equity Group are on 24.5 percent and 26.9 percent respectively. That’s not just leagues ahead of the 5-7 percent ROE at Europe’s biggest banks, it beats the 15-18 percent at South Africa’s top lenders. Market concentration may have something to do with it: Kenya’s seven biggest lenders (there are about 43 in total) hold 80 percent of the banking system’s cash.
But capping interest rates risks damaging the Kenyan economy and stunting credit growth, a danger not lost on officials at the country’s central bank and finance ministry, who opposed the measure. If banks stop catering to anyone but the safest credit risk, it may encourage shadow banks or dodgy lenders to step in. If smaller banks find it harder to make ends meet, they may get bought up, making those dominant banks even bigger. And the new loan cap, at 4 percentage points above the base central bank rate, sets a potentially “unreasonable” ceiling for Kenya’s risk premium, according to investment firm Cytonn.
So why take such a chance? Well, next year’s election and a bank-bashing law may be just the ticket to win votes. Some analysts reckon it’s a purely populist move.
Yet the sell-off of Kenyan bank stocks over the past month suggests markets weren’t adequately prepared for this risk, with the chorus of credible dissenting voices perhaps lulling investors. And while it’s easy to dismiss this as the kind of problem specific to emerging markets, there are echoes of the anti-elite vibe in Europe and the U.S.
Championing the banks, in particular, isn’t much of a vote winner. The U.S. election has put the restoration of Glass-Steagall back on the table, with Republicans calling for big banks to be broken up. British chancellor Philip Hammond is trying to put a protective arm around the City of London by exploring continued access to Europe’s single market, but he’s clashing with the crowd-pleasing instincts of the “three Brexiteers”, Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis.
There’s still hope that pragmatism will prevail. Calls for a restoration of Glass-Steagall look like posturing, while Moody’s reckons that even if the U.K. quit the single market, its finance firms could probably still do plenty of business in the EU.
Yet the Kenya experience shows the potential for nasty surprises in a populist age, whether self-harming or not. Don’t forget that Brexit itself caught investors on the hop.
As the dust settles on the implementation of new laws on loans and deposits interest rates, the focus is now shifting towards areas that may not have been addressed explicitly or sufficient in the law, that has received praises from the mwananchi and sharp criticism from economists on its long-term effect on the economy, and that’s the Mobile money space.
Since a mid-last week, M-Shwari (a product of CBA and Safaricom) has come under attack from the Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) as well as competitors, who claim that the product should be subjected to the Kenya Banking (Amendment) Act, 2016.
COFEK argued, “The law is clear that it applies to all loans. Whether offered directly or indirectly, any loan from a licensee of the Central Bank of Kenya via an agent and or mobile phone or any other technology is not exempt from the 4 per cent over and above the Central Bank Rate.” Launched in November 2012, Mswari set the pace for mobile loans attarcting others.
In seeking expert analysis on the Mshwari facts as policy of Kenya Insights, material available indicate that, there is no interest levied on M-Shwari loans. The only cost to the borrower is a one-off facilitation fee of 7.5%, charged at disbursement. Time value of money: Tenor of M-Shwari loans is 30 days only, as compared to competing products have longer tenors.
Interest and Fees/Charges are two different types of revenue.
Facility fees in the case for M-Shwari is return the lender earns from the activity of arranging credit. Fees are charged as either absolute amounts or relative amounts. Given the short-term nature of the credit (30 days) and the fact that a customer can payback sooner (at any time within the 30 days), it is more appropriate to levy a fee over interest.
Interest on the other hand follows the concept of time value of money and earns the lender an increasing return over time, for as long as the loan is outstanding. As such, interest is quoted per defined period either as per annum (over 12 months) or per month, etc. M-Shwari loans are levied a fee against the amount disbursed, irrespective of the repayment duration.
If COFEK’s position was to carry the day, we are likely to witness the following scenarios; Erosion of gains in Financial Inclusion- this is because it is the low income earners who usually use M-Shwari on a regular basis for economic gain. If M-Shwari is not viable for business, the bank may be forced to do away with it thereby reversing the gains that have positioned Kenya where it is.
Experts are warning that we would be facing an Economic slowdown/ exclusion- Many traders will be unable to access the more expensive lending products leading to the death of a number of businesses. High cost of credit- Alternative products are more expensive and this includes loan sharks. Failure to repay the loan on time, has very adverse repercussions. Tax Implications- CBA pays taxes on income from M-Shwari. Loan sharks and other competing products do not pay taxes.
Among these areas is mobile savings and lending, as well as discussions on who will lead in the efforts to amend the law and what will be reviewed therein. As the President said when signing the law, “We will implement the new law, noting the difficulties that it would present, which include credit becoming unavailable to some consumers and the possible emergence of unregulated informal and exploitative lending mechanisms.” It is not in doubt that the cracks are already emerging.
Quick Statistics
• Over 420,000 loan applications are made every day
• Over 70,000 loans are processed daily on M-Shwari.
• Majority of the loans are repaid within 30 days.
• Average loan amount is Kes. 3,200.
• Current NPL is by far, much lower by average than the ones you would find in commercial banks
• CBA has increased the interest rate on deposits made to M-Shwari accounts- in line with The Banking (Amendment) Act, 2016
• Close to 16 million customers on M-Shwari have made CBA the biggest bank by customer numbers
• Many small businessmen use M-Shwari as their working capital- with some borrowing and repaying up to 7 times a day.
• CBA has similar propositions to M-Shwari the E.A. region and plans are afoot to extend the footprint to other markets in the African continent. In Tanzania, CBA partners with Vodacom to offer M-Pawa (5 million customers), whilst in Uganda the bank has partnered with MTN to offer the recently launched MoKash.
Like in the media, who opposed digital migration, the banking players in Kenya have also been hesitant on adopting the new changes so it really shouldn’t come as a surprise when they pull dark innuendos but one thing we can’t deny is the fact that mobile loans has been to the advantage of the mwananchi who can now sit at the comfort of their homes and get a quick loan at the touch of a button a break from the traditional tedious ordeal in securing a loan from the Banks.
Mr Kyalo addressing the crowd in Kitui town during Joho’s stopover
Mombasa Governor Joho is currently enjoying high calibre political privileges given his renewed vows to popularize ODM. During the recent party’s celebration in mombasa, the party’s Dep Chairman announced Raila as their presidential candidate and personally vowed to lead from the front, Raila’s nationwide campaign.
As it manifests, the governor has already hit the rail with a stopover in Kitui for a mini rally which had an impressive turnout. He proceeded to Nairobi where together with Governor Kidero led in the celebration of ODM. The rally in Mathare was as well a success.
However, all that shines is not as merry, Kenya Insights has learnt that Joho’s Chief of Staff Mr. Kyalo is silently undermining the character and reputation of the governor’s brand. According to an informant, Kyalo is now a wanted man in Kitui after insulting the residents on Saturday and failing to pay Kshs 100,000 allowance made for men who provided security to the Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho during his visit in the town.
The Chief of staff is on record demeaning the County residents as fools and telling off the youths who had provided security to the prominent politician not to expect a dime from him despite having entered into an agreement with them prior to the event.
Details that we’veindicate that The Chief of Staff who also happen to be from the area and a popular figure amongst the residents, had earlier on Saturday met 20 young men who were to provide security to the Governor on arrival. According to their ageeement, each of them were to receive an allowance of Kshs 5,000 and that the amount was to be paid on completing the job. Naturally, being someone they know, they bought into his verbal contract.
Joho addressing the Kitui Crowd
Things took a complete turn when immediately after the event and joho left, Mr. Kyalo left with his car to a restaurant along Kitui-Kibwezi highway with a few friends where they enjoyed some drinks for a few hours before leaving to Nairobi. He left the youths stranded at the event venue without paying them immediately as agreed. They made frantic calls to him and he arrogantly told them off, dishonering the agreement.
When contacted through phone for the allowances of the security men he responded arrogantly spewing “you fools stop bothering me, pesa ya joho endeleeni kuimezea mate.”
When contacted through phone for the allowances of the security men he responded arrogantly spewing “you fools stop bothering me, pesa ya joho endeleeni kuimezea mate.”
The response really angered the young men and who have now vowed to deal with the chief of Staff if he fails to honor their deal. They’ve also sent a warning to Joho to be worried about Kyalo as he could be working secretly to undermine him. “Hatutakubali mtu yeyote akule jasho yetu, wacha aende na hiyo but tutapatana tena,” one of the guys was quoted saying. The security men have also vowed to never allow Governor joho campaign in Kitui again if that’s how him and his staff operate.
The response really angered the young men and who have now vowed to deal with the chief of Staff if he fails to honor their deal. They’ve also sent a warning to Joho to be worried about Kyalo as he could be working secretly to undermine him. “Hatutakubali mtu yeyote akule jasho yetu, wacha aende na hiyo but tutapatana tena,” one of the guys was quoted saying. The security men have also vowed to never allow Governor joho campaign in Kitui again if that’s how him and his staff operate.
What this fella has done is not anything new, incidences of people taking advantage of the unemployed youths heightens with the political high note seasons. Kyalo it’s shameful to look down upon people you free up with, it’s morally uncouth not to honor deals like this one is a new level of pettiness. These young men provided what you wanted, you have no otherwise but to pay then what they rightfully deserve. Sh100K is a petty cash that you shouldn’t jeopardise the brand of your employer, it doesn’t worth the tussle, this is bad painting to someone looking into a nationwide darling look as he sells the party. Pay up!
By Nicholas Olambo
As interviews ended, Judiciary Service Commission (JSC) retreats to consider who is best fit to be the next Chief Justice of the supreme court of Kenya. The seat that fell vacant Willy Mutunga retired in june attracted 14 applicants but only 6 were shortlisted. The interviews this time did not match up to those of 2011 that saw controversial Willy Mutunga appointed the first CJ under the new law. The just concluded interviews attracted ‘jokes’ that opted out of the race after being shortlisted.
The commission failed to sit one Thursday after an applicant who had been scheduled for interview bowed out, David Waihiga. He was the second to opt out after the law student cum carpenter Andrew Kongani who did not meet the 15 years’ minimum legal experience requirement. Waihaga however opted for the position of the Supreme Court judge. There were also gambles from some quarters that all those who applied should be interviewed for the interest of transparency.
The recruitment process also saw big names such US based Kenyan Law Professor Makau Mutua, Former anti-corruption czar Aaron Ringera and Supreme Court Judge Jackton Boma Ojwang’ locked out. The decision to drop Prof Makau Mutua and Jackton Ojwang’ sparked reactions with Law Society of Kenya (LSK) putting JSC to task to explain the criteria that was used that saw more than half of the applicants not shortlisted. JSC sighted unsuitability on grounds of leadership, integrity and ethics as some of the reasons.
The recruitment process also saw big names such US based Kenyan Law Professor Makau Mutua, Former anti-corruption czar Aaron Ringera and Supreme Court Judge Jackton Boma Ojwang’ locked out. The decision to drop Prof Makau Mutua and Jackton Ojwang’ sparked reactions with Law Society of Kenya (LSK) putting JSC to task to explain the criteria that was used that saw more than half of the applicants not shortlisted. JSC sighted unsuitability on grounds of leadership, integrity and ethics as some of the reasons.
JSC had to interview the other seven in advent of the court order. The process was not rigorous as it was in 2011; the two sitting Supreme Court judges, Smokin Wanjala and Jackton Ojwang’ were subjected to the same questions which was not fair. Bubble gum questions like whether an applicant is on social media or not did not draw suitability in terms of competence, integrity, leadership and ethics. Some candidates responded to questions like they reciting poem.
JSC had to interview the other seven in advent of the court order. The process was not rigorous as it was in 2011; the two sitting Supreme Court judges, Smokin Wanjala and Jackton Ojwang’ were subjected to the same questions which was not fair. Bubble gum questions like whether an applicant is on social media or not did not draw suitability in terms of competence, integrity, leadership and ethics. Some candidates responded to questions like they reciting poem.
As the country awaits the big announcement from the JSC, the room for the public to guess is far wide with varying reasons. Considerations based on professional qualification, integrity, gender and ethnic distribution must produce the final cut. Candidates like Makau Mutua have shown that they are strong on principle, not afraid of the executive and can run the judiciary as an independent unit and are also pro reforms like the former CJ. Jackton Ojwang boasts of vast experience but he cannot keep his cool and respect for his juniors. He could also not explain the hefty legal award on Biwott case.
By Nicholas Olambo
Jubilee party launch was also the event that saw the top cream in Kenya’s music take on stage to entertain the mammoth crowd and dignitaries. There was nothing different from that list and previous events, industry is run by cartels and their seasoned bootlickers could not miss out. It was the same script as it was during Jubilee coalition campaigns, President Uhuru’s inauguration and as it is on any public holiday.
Some have become in-house cats without respect nation values. I mean the overdone theatrics by one Kevin Bahati Kioko. How would he sit his small butts on the president’s chair? These chaps who quit school and get into the entertainment industry without proper mentorship are going overboard. We can’t afford to raise a generation that doesn’t respect national symbols like the president’s chair; I have never seen The First Lady sit on it but Bahati did, stretch his legs on the stool then went ahead did the same on the DP’s chair. Gosh!! The boy went overboard.
Some have become in-house cats without respect nation values. I mean the overdone theatrics by one Kevin Bahati Kioko. How would he sit his small butts on the president’s chair? These chaps who quit school and get into the entertainment industry without proper mentorship are going overboard. We can’t afford to raise a generation that doesn’t respect national symbols like the president’s chair; I have never seen The First Lady sit on it but Bahati did, stretch his legs on the stool then went ahead did the same on the DP’s chair. Gosh!! The boy went overboard.
Politics aside, any event attended by the president should be treated as a national event. The characters lined to entertain or just address the crowd should inspire and harbor national values but what did I see, Rufftone and Ringtone! Corrupt and controversial in that order. Roy Smith Mwaita or Rufftone as he is popularly known was named in report by the county assembly of Vihiga on a Sh30 million subsidized fertilizer distribution.
Politics aside, any event attended by the president should be treated as a national event. The characters lined to entertain or just address the crowd should inspire and harbor national values but what did I see, Rufftone and Ringtone! Corrupt and controversial in that order. Roy Smith Mwaita or Rufftone as he is popularly known was named in report by the county assembly of Vihiga on a Sh30 million subsidized fertilizer distribution.
The 19 paged report by the assembly revealed that the singer received shs 180,000 during the distribution which was between March 3rd and 7th 2015. The Mungu Baba hit maker was identified by his artistic name throughout the report raising more eyebrows on the procurement and distribution. Ruff was sourced to entertain buyers and signed the deal on foolscap for three different amounts with three different signatures.
Ringtone on the other hand has the biggest share of controversy more than any gospel artiste with Bahati and Willy Paul playing way below his league.
Just last month the gospel crooner was in court to withdraw a case against a contractor he had accused of stealing from his Karen home. Not just that, the self professed former street kid has endless controversies, from his questionable flashy lifestyle, beef with MCSK to a case where he allegedly got a girl pregnant and asked her to abort. One fails to understand why hypocritical gospel artistes are always favoured, who does Ringtone inspire or what positive thing does he represent?
There so many mannered and humble gospel and secular artistes out there, who can step on national stage, entertain, educate and inspire the crowds. Eric Wainaina, Suzanna Owiyo, Juacali, Gloria Muliro just to name a few. These are individuals who crafted their art from scratch and mastered it professionally, Suzanna has been on international stage performing before the late Nelson Mandela, Wainaina has been performed in Fifa World cup opening ceremony.
This country has more to offer but event organizers have chosen to stick on the same script of whack drop outs with beg for mercy stories who can rhyme at end of every sentence, put a beat on it and then lick their boots. Artistes need to at least learn how to approach different crowds, events and know how far they can go. Bahati went too far but it’s that sad the chap does not know how far is too far. May be he can be accused based on ignorance.
By Nicholas Olambo
Ali Hassan Joho was first elected Mp for Kisauni in 2007 , he went on to serve as assistant minister in the grand coalition government then later rose to be the first governor of Mombasa County in 2013. Joho is increasing becoming very influential in ODM and national politics cementing his twin ambitions as the coast region’s kingpin and the presidency.
Joho’s efforts at the Malindi by elections emboledened his ambitions. In fact it is after the Malindi by elections that county 001’s governor got the courage to publicly declare his presidential quest in 2022. Malindi parliamentary seat fell vacant after President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed the then ODM Mp to the energy docket. President Kenyatta’s move was a ploy to penetrate into an area considered a Cord/ODM stronghold. Jubilee lost to ODM and with the kind of money that was spent in that by election, the jubilee coalition was sent back into the drawing board.
ODM candidate Willy Mtengo traunced jubilee’s Philip Charo. The win enchanced Joho and Kilifi governor’s stature at the coast as the party’s formidable assests. Joho was the chief campaigner and paymaster. He camped in Malindi for three weeks and after the victory he declared to carry on the momentum and take the ‘war’ to the doorsteps of the party rebels who were not with the people. The momentum is indeed on and the manner in which he organised the ODM party’s tenth birthday to counter jubilee’s party launch says it all. No one thought ODM event would be any big thing to talk. ‘ODM will be having a small bash at the Coast’ said the controversial MP, Moses Kuria.
Just a week after anniversay fete, Joho has planned another rally in Nairobi tomorrow in Mathare. ‘The party will hold roadshows before Mathare rally on September 18’ Joho said despite a looming battle as both ODM and Jubilee book meetings on the same ground on the same day. The idea to hold the rally in Mathare seems as a move by the party to campaign in areas where their members defected to join the recently launched Jubilee Party. Mathare Mp Stephen Kariuki who was elected on an ODM ticket is one of many Cord MPs who defected to JP.
Joho is taking the ‘war’ to the rebels’ doorsteps without mincing a word criticizing the Jubilee adminstration. He has been the loudest critic on historical injustices on land issues at the coast, most notably is the Waitiki land in Likoni. Joho has also been critical of the National government for not involving his county government whenever the President visits Mombasa.
When one may argue that we have equaly seen many young politicians who rise fast and fall. Lack of focus and ‘political hustle’ are major the attributes to fast rise and quick falls. We are living in an era where broke politicians are ‘bought’ on a daily basis, going against the will of their supporters and denting their political careers. Joho brags as being too expensive and cannot be ‘bought’ by anyone to join the wrong political camp.
He sits at the vantage point to succeed ODM Party leader Odinga. He is the deputy party leader very close to Mr Odinga enjoying love from every party’s strong hold. When he rode with Raila in the same car in Kisumu at the memory of anti-IEBC protest victims, Joho gracefully waved to the enthusiastic supporters receiving wild cheers. The manner in which he has played his cards so far places him among the top national politicians and a force to reckon with in post Uhuru era.
The Governor of Machakos County Alfred Mutua and his deputy Bernard Kiala
By Nicholas Olambo
With the new constitution came the devolution that created the governor position to head counties. Each governor appoints his deputy before presenting their documents to IEBC, the duo are then elected as a team to lead the county governments. The journey was all rosy till elections but immediately they got into office the ugly head of dirty politics came out. Somewhere along the way as senators began lining up to challenge their respective governors in the coming polls, deputy governors are also proving potential threats to the governors’ crowns.
The working relationship in a number of counties has been severely strained. Machakos governor Dr Alfred Mutua and his deputy Bernard Kyala are friends turned foes. Mutua has accused his deputy of working closely with his enemies, Senator Johnson Muthama and other Mps from the region. ‘My deputy is a traitor who is working with my enemies to plot my impeachment so that he can complete the remainder of my term’ Mutua said. The inverse is the case though; Governor Mutua has been accused of frustrating and ‘impeaching’ his deputy, locking his office, denying him his official car and having him not covered under the medical insurance package.
Kyala has since declared running against Mutua in the 2017 elections straining their relationship further. Mutual, a PR and communications expert on the other hand claims that Mr. Kyala is just a lazy individual who cannot keep up to his stamina. He brags of single handedly improving the state of roads and sinking more boreholes than any other Kamba leader since time immemorial and through his Maendeleo Chap Chap Movement he is destined to do more. Mutua ignores the ailing health sector in Machakos as a normal problem experienced in many counties across the country.
Kyala has since declared running against Mutua in the 2017 elections straining their relationship further. Mutual, a PR and communications expert on the other hand claims that Mr. Kyala is just a lazy individual who cannot keep up to his stamina. He brags of single handedly improving the state of roads and sinking more boreholes than any other Kamba leader since time immemorial and through his Maendeleo Chap Chap Movement he is destined to do more. Mutua ignores the ailing health sector in Machakos as a normal problem experienced in many counties across the country.
When its all clear that governors are selfish and their deputies are greedy, Mutua says he just did not have enough time to choose a good deputy before elections and instead blames his woes on the leadership of Wiper Party. He says the Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka is jelous of ‘positive attention’ he is getting through his development projects because he led the community for three decades and did nothing. He further denies allegations that he has quit wiper party saying he is a card holding member.
His comments on Kalonzo can be ignored; The PR governor has history of belittling people including respectable global leaders. When he was the government spokesman in the Kibaki administration, Mutua referred to President Barrack Obama the then senator of Illinois as a small guy who was coming to traverse our beautiful country polluting the air. Obama then rose to be the president of the most powerful country on earth, United States of America when Mutua is still a governor who can’t even lead his deputy. Can he lead the people? Leadership is a team work; Mutua is not getting along with his deputy, Senator and the Women rep.
Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero and His Deputy Jonathan Mueke
If he seriously means the kind of development he is bragging of, why should he stay in a party whose leadership has been his obstruction to proper development? He denies allegations that Maendeleo Chap Chap is a party but a movement that is open anyone who shares in his development ideology to join for the good of the people. The truth is Maendeleo Chapa Chap is party whose launch at the Bomas was poorly attended making it difficult for the poor governor to use as his re-election vehicle.
In Kisumu the situation is not any different. The governor and the deputy don’t see eye to eye. This is what you get when you force two strange fellows to bed; the governor and his deputy are odd couples who were brought together to avoid party friction towards the 2013 polls. Both were eyeing the gubernatorial post through the same party, ODM, but the deputy was asked by the party chiefs to shelve her ambitions and deputize Hon. Jack Ranguma. The case of occupants of both offices not relating well has also been witnessed in Kwale, Bungoma and somehow in Nairobi.
At some point there were whispers that the relationship between Nairobi governor and his deputy Jonathan Mueke was weakening. Mueke denied the allegations even as Machakos governor said on a national television that the case in Machakos is the same in Nairobi. He also added that Mueke had considered running against Kidero at some point but he was smart. He realized that Kidero is too strong to beat and with deep pockets. His candidature against Kidero is not viable; he has no choice but to deputize him.
With the poor rapport many Kenyans can be of the option that the deputy position be abolished but I think it’s the selection criteria that should be opened for debate. When Mutua says that the governor does 98% of the work and the governor should fire and hire their deputies, I think the roles of the deputy should be entrenched in the law so that individuals cannot lock a public office and stop an elected leader from carrying out his duties.
The Union body of Kenya journalists has come out fiercely condemning the latest directives by the media council aimed at snoozing the vocal voices of journalists online and restraining them from having a political saying.
The media council which insiders say is puppeted by the executive have out stern warning in an induced address to journalists against making open their political positions and being ‘unnecessarily noisy’ on social media. The body went ahead to advise meds houses to take disciplinary actions against such journos. These developments were instigated by the uncompromised trio of Mohammed Ali, Dennis Onsarigo and James Smart who are perceived to be government critics and continuously attack the system on social media.
KUJ Sec-Gen Eric Oduor while rejecting the conditions by the Media Council guidelines on journalists with political interests saying they shouldn’t be taken seriously by journalists. He maintains they are illegal guidelines that suppress freedom of expression. In other countries journalists are usually affiliated to political ideologies. The Media Council Council of Kenya should come up with a framework that will allow journalists as professionals to take a stand on political issues to deal with the confusion it is trying to address rather than resorting to gagging.
“We must avoid Kanu style of addressing problems in the industry. Civil servants are given a period to leave office to start campaigns. What about journalists? Is it one year? two years? One week?”, Eric Oduor, KUJ Sec-Gen.
The Media Council of Kenya has come out guns blazing to send stern warning to journalists with dissenting, rebellious voices, in a cautioning statement, the council addressed on a number of emerging issues touching on the media’s coverage of the campaigns as well as the conduct of journalists during the electioneering period ahead of the 2017 general election.
The Council advised media houses to let go of politicians in newsrooms; journalists and media practitioners that have declared affiliation to political parties/movements/groupings or indicated their intentions to vie for elective positions in 2017. The Code of Ethics for the Practice of Journalism in Kenya is very clear on this and related conflict of interest matters. This according to sleuths speaking to Kenya Insights, was stealthily slotted in from high powers following emergence of photos of KTN’ Mohammed Ali and Dennis Onsarigo having a meeting with CORD leader Raila Odinga at a private location in Mombasa. The Jicho Pevu pioneer is also on record vying for Nyali Parliamentary seat.
The photos that were widely circulated by Dennis Itumbi insinuated from his caption that the two journalists were in alliance with the opposition leader. Itumbi went further to attack Moha asking him to call off journalism and go wholely into politics if so was his intention. Ironically, Itumbi and Uhuru have both been pictured together with journalists, its also said Itumbi has intimate affair with Citizen’s Jackie Maribe, would that also be read as ethics compromise as in the case of the investigative duo?
Charles Kerich, Chairman, Media Council of Kenya went further to advise media houses to develop and implement social media policies. To this end, the MCK will work closely with media houses that are yet to put in place such, to develop social media policies. The call for control over what journalists post online comes at a time when those deemed to be system’s critics as Moha, Onsarigo, James Smart and SADIQUE sHABAAN HAVE INCREASINGLY ABD STEADILY BEEN HITTING THE GOVERNMENT BELOW THE BELT AND GIVEN THEIR huge following and influence were told the establishment is not amused and worried hence need to regulate content.
Dennis Itumbi making out with Citizen tv’s Jacque Maribe Maribe in a photo moment with the President
While journalists, like all other citizens, have rights to be active on social media and by extension enjoy freedom of expression, the body insists they should draw the line between personal opinion in private space and walls, and views that suggest that a journalist is biased. It is unrealistic for media practitioners to spew biased opinions on their social media pages, and expect not to be viewed as partisan by people who expect to be covered fairly.
The Council insists that journalists/media practitioners should avoid openly affiliating with political parties and must be perceived to be neutral. The MCK, which is mandated to accredit all media practitioners in Kenya, will withdraw the accreditation of journalists who want to work for political parties, and this withdrawal will mean that they are not authorised to work as media practitioners in the country.
All parties in a political contest, in the lead up to the elections, deserve to be covered fairly by the media. There are claims the council alludes to particularly from some counties, that some politicians have influenced journalists to the extent that their competitors do not enjoy any fair coverage, and only make it to the media with negative stories. Media houses are advised to investigate these claims and take appropriate action. In the same vein, the Council wishes to request media houses to establish/ strengthen their public editors’ offices to help deal with such.
The Media Council of Kenya urges all media houses to be cognizant of the welfare of their reporters and correspondents, and to facilitate them adequately in their coverage of political events. The culture of brown envelop journalism, where news sources spend money to obtain favourable coverage, should be highly discouraged through firm action against those breaking the law.
Mohammed Ali pictured talking to the President Mohammed Ali and Dennis Onsarigo pictured talking to Raila and Joho
Talking of media freedom and balancing interests, its ironical that Charles Kerich, who is Chairman, Media Council of Kenya giving the contradiction of interests lectures also doubles as the Chief Editor to the Star, a predominantly political publication, doesn’t his position put him in a compromising state. Beside and unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to disconnect the media from political interference while the same politicians are the owners of the media houses. In this case for example, you wouldn’t expect Charles Kerich to approve a hammering article on Kidero who is his boss and shareholder of the Star.
The move to control what journalists post online is a challenge to the freedom of speech and whichever way and explanations to be used in justifying the regulation won’t rub off the fact that it’s a gagging order barring the journalists from freely expressing themselves without fear of losing their job. With the newsrooms severely regulated and items sieved, the only remaining free platform where journalists have been able to give unsieved news, becomes latest target as the final nail on the coffin.
Samwel Mushai crosses the line, Paralympics legend with three good medals to his chest.
One wouldn’t be mistaken to think that there’s no Paralympics games going on in Brazil now. With a cold media coverage and lip seal service by majority of social media users in Kenya, everything surrounding the competition has been swept under the drains.
The competition is barely days to closure and its not getting any serious headlines and social media buzz as that of the Stellar athletes whose trip was filled with fiasco stench. Does this cold treatment expose the societal double standards, isn’t it telling how we look down upon the physically challenged in the society? Isn’t it telling of inner disgusting assumption amongst other people that they’re lesser of human? Why can’t we see the athletes winning gold on front pages, why can’t we see those congratulatory messages from the President and other dignitaries flowing as they were on the Stellar athletes?
Isn’t Paralympics medals a shame or a pride to us as a nation? We must treat each other equally that sense of inclusion boosts patriotism morale. We need to motivate these athletes.
Mark you it’s the same scandalous NOCK that took the athletes to the Paralympics let’s not start imagining the obvious atrocities they’ve been subjected to and looting with zero media coverage and no one to voice for the athletes, the forest with different monkeys must be pretty on fire. Talking of Nock, it’s emerging the dirty body allocated Sh18M for Nike lots for athletes while Nike the official kits sponsor gave them out for free. Nock booked a cruise ship and hotel for President Uhuru which he didn’t attend, needless to say it’s only the Presidential Unit who arranges all the Presidents visits and not NOCK. Do I need to add that the officials behind the NOCK mismanagement are free?
So far Kenya’s Samwel Mushai Kimani has added T11 1500m gold to his 5000m title, clocking 4:03.25 for victory. Mushai is becoming a legend in the Paralympics. He has three GOLDS. Samuel and Wilson Bii had opened Kenya’s medal haul winning gold and bronze respectively in the 5,000m final last Thursday. With four medals won, Kenya sits at position 42 out of 70 nations that have so far claimed medals.
Kenya Insights celebrates these unappreciated heroes and praises them for continuing to fly the Kenyan flags high. Continue with the good work and spirit, Kenyans of great morals are with you.
Auditor General report has uneartheddisturbing inconsistencies within the office of AG Githu Muigai. The Office of the Attorney-General and Department of Justice had a total budget for the year 2014/2015 of Kshs.3,482,018,843 for both recurrent and development expenditure. However, the Office utilised a total of Kshs.3,002,775,301 resulting in an underutilization of Kshs.479,243,542 (13%) of the total budget.
Further, the office did not receive Kshs.801,509,542 (21%) of the planned exchequer releases to implement its annual objectives.
Examination of the recurrent account bank reconciliation statement revealed payments in cash book not in bank statement of Kshs.104,619,219.36 out of which Kshs.35,744,293 have been long outstanding and also payments in bank statement but not in cash book amounting to Kshs.53,132,463 out of which Kshs.45,162,116 have been long outstanding. Although the AG Office has explained that they have adjusted their cash book with Kshs.33,127,388 and Kshs.33,078,871 respectively and further explained that most of the payments in bank and not in cash book were pay advances that were paid by Central Bank of Kenya on their behalf to foreign banks, no analysis was provided to support and justify the adjustments. In the circumstances, the cash and cash equivalents balance of Kshs.93,871,592 30 could not be confirmed by the OAG.
The statement of receipts and payments reflects proceeds from domestic and foreign grants of Kshs.300,000,000 as at 30 June 2015. It was alleged that the donor agencies paid the funds directly to recipient projects/programs and the expenditure incurred thereon in form of Research, Studies, Project Preparation, Design and Supervision. However, no supporting documentation has been provided for audit review to confirm the amount received and spent by the Office of the Attorney-General and Department of Justice. Consequently, Auditor General notes thst it was not possible to confirm the accuracy and propriety of the revenue or expenditure of Kshs.300,000,000.
Further, Ouko highlighted weaknesses in the internal control systems of the AG office stating that there are no risk management policy in place during the year under review. No risk assessment was carried out to identify and address key areas of concern and document specific controls in response to identified risks – There is no evidence that management assessed the internal controls applicable to address any material weaknesses that could be inherent in the controls.
The report indicates, AG office has not produced operating manuals to guide key processes and controls for receipts from debtors/customers, payments to creditors, personnel, expenditure, assets and liabilities and investments. There was no operational plan for the year under review. Most systems of the Official Receiver are manual, the institution does not have an approved Information Technology (IT) strategic plan and security policy. The institution has no formal, documented and tested disaster recovery plan/emergency procedure in place, to guide on cases of emergency
Esther Passaris, aspirant for Nairobi Gubernatorial
Women and the Civic Society has been battling with the not materialising Two-Third gender policy that would see a square representation in the political sphere. In the course, the women are looking into being allocated seats sheltering under the minority gender umbrella. Critics have shut down this mentality that women should shun away from maintaining a “receive” mentality and instead bolt out, cock their firearm and go head-on with the men who are currently enjoying the upper hand.
In the current devolution government set up, of the 47 counties, none is a woman going further to show the wide gap in gender balance. Luckily, in nomination slots as a measure in fulfilling the gender balance. As of now, Esther Passaris is the only serious female contender who has expressed her interest in going for the Nairobi Gubernatorial position that is being eyed by political giants and test tube politicians. Passaris is determined to unseat the incumbent, Kidero and she doesn’t seem to be stopping at any point.
With a vector of being unique, the fierce politician has decided to go the opposite way in pursuing her political ambition by creating her party. While the rest of contestants as Johnson Sakaja, Dennis Waweru, Eugene Wamalwa are neck on the neck to clinch the Jubilee ticket and gambling with their political career given the latest restrictive party hoping law, Passaris is maintaining a relaxed posture knowing her position in her party is secured.
Passaris is currently battling to have her Harambee Democratic Party registered and did a national drive to popularise it. She is sharply against the Party Hopping rule saying it’s undemocratic and restricting. While other women are waiting for the male-dominated parliament to pass the gender rule that they’ve already shut down, great dreamers as Passaris are taking the next and necessary steps, taking. In Africa, there’s a widespread belief that power is not given it’s made.
It couldn’t have happened at a better time when Hillary Clinton is poised to be the 1st ever American President and Meckel is holding down Germany, the time is ripe for women to arm up and take these seats. Passaris also discourages the nation of silver spoon feeding that majority of the women are banking on to be awarded the positions. In a highly competitive world where women are rising to high positions diminishing the traditional norm of men dominance, women like Passaris who opt to grow a tough skin and fight for their spaces must be celebrated.
Passaris during an interview
Passaris is not new to the murky world of politics that she’s been in and continues to. On February 16th, 2008, Passaris was among three ODM councillors who expressed interest in the Nairobi’s mayoral seat. Others included Baba Dogo councillor Godfrey Majiwa, ODM vice chairperson Mugambi Imanyara. Passaris and Imanyara were both short-listed by ODM for the nomination. ODM had 36 elected councillors against PNU’s 25 and therefore had 12 nomination slots and PNU 8.
Passaris contested for the seat on the principles of bringing accountability and transparency to city hall, developing a city master plan, improving revenue collection, resolving the garbage collection problem and improving infrastructure. However, her bid for councillor for Nairobi was dealt a blow when, on February 22nd, 2008, her name was missing from a list gazetted by the then Local Government Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.
In the run up to the Embakasi by-election, she was among a host of other contenders battling it out for ODM ticket nominations. Others aspirants included Julius Were, Ishrad Sumra, Lameck Siage, Prof.Tony Wambua, ODM women league leader Jane Wangui and Norman Ochieng Ogum.
During that highly contested battle, Passaris defied all odds to capture the ODM ticket on May 11th, 2008 to run for the Embakasi Constituency by-election. And on May 26th, 2008 she was among the candidates cleared by the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) to run for the Embakasi West constituency by-election which fell vacant after local MP Mugabe Were was shot dead outside his home in Nairobi a month after taking office. Other candidates included Kalembe Ndile (Tip), Republican Liberty Party candidate Mr Zachariah Momanyi. After the final vote count on June 11th, 2008, ODM’s Esther Passaris polled 27,339 against PNU’s Ferdinand Waititu who garnered 36,536 votes. Tip’s Kalembe Ndile got 843 votes.
Nationally, the prominent women face like Martha Karua and Charity Ngilu whom majority have identified with, have taken a lukewarm position leaving the field open for Passaris to re-debut with her Nairobi bid and popularising her yet to be approved party nationwide. The country is fishing for alternative leadership, impermeable and uncompromising leadership. Nairobi is entangled in a corrupt network that is running the City Hall, with her tested leadership qualities of personally getting involved at all managerial positions and track record of fighting corruption, Passaris stands a better position in tackling the City’s problems.
Kenyan politics is unfortunately engraved on tribal dimension and Passaris is aware of that, in her recent interview with a local publication, she called out on her Tribe, Kikuyu from feeling more superior compared to other tribes simply because they’re in power by President Uhuru. Passaris who shies away from using her Muthoni name believing it cuts her out as a Kenyan and can easily be stereotyped, believes in an all inclusive system of governance, and this has set her core vision of having a Nairobi for all where everyone will be feeling entitled, despite race and tribe. Better service delivery remains her predetermined result. Tribalism is what drags the Country behind if we can delink then, we’re on the road to cohesion and prosperity.
Kodira Edmond, one of the many aspirants who’ve decided to go against the odds of popular party norm.
By Nicholas Olambo
As 2017 draws closer, political landscapes are changing every other day. Quite a number of the youths have decided to try their hands in the dirty political waters to at least stir change. They say you can’t do the same thing the same way repeatedly and expect a different result. Regions that have been in the opposition for the longest time and have experienced stunted development are shifting from the obvious. Like Magarini Mp Harrison Kombe once said ‘ we have been in the opposition for the longest time possible but gained nothing, we would rather join the government and get ‘fake’ title deeds, at least it’s something towards solving emotive land issues at the coast’.
It’s a time tested belief that being in the government comes with goodies despite the government’s role being to serve all the people from both political divides. Budding politicians launching their careers from opposition dominated areas are daring to cut against the grains, one such candidate is Joseph Edmond K’odira who is aspiring to seek the Gwassi North Ward seat on Jubilee Party ticket despite the region being pro ODM. He believes that strong winds of change are blowing; JP has already received defectors from opposition strong holds like Luo Nyanza.
It’s a time tested belief that being in the government comes with goodies despite the government’s role being to serve all the people from both political divides. Budding politicians launching their careers from opposition dominated areas are daring to cut against the grains, one such candidate is Joseph Edmond K’odira who is aspiring to seek the Gwassi North Ward seat on Jubilee Party ticket despite the region being pro ODM. He believes that strong winds of change are blowing; JP has already received defectors from opposition strong holds like Luo Nyanza.
Karachuonyo Mp James Rege announced his defection from ODM to JP during the party launch in Kasarani.
All the candidates in the race to clinch Gwassi North seat which draws more attention than any other in Suba Constituency are from the teaching profession except the incumbent Evans Dada Marieba who was elected on an ODM ticket. Millicent Nyaboke is a primary school teacher, Kennas Ongola is accounts clerk at Tonga High School and Joseph Edmond K’odira is a lecturer at Kericho Institute. All the candidates are seeking the ODM ticket except K’odira who is from the Jubilee party. He says his opponents have chosen on a party that is deemed popular in the region because they represent no fresh ideas and policies but people are ready for change and he will trounce them.
Going by ‘Turn on the Light’ slogan, K’odira’s key policies are on unity, job creation for all, optimal exploitation of natural resources, youth and women empowerment, Education for all and poverty alleviation. He believes in working with the government to improve the road networks so that the region can fully exploit its potential. ‘Despite the region being rich in fish, Gwassi hills also receive enough rainfall annually and for that reason does well in agriculture, he notes. ‘Our people have been in the opposition for a long time and we have not experienced any development changes to write home, it’s time we worked with the government and see what that can bring’ Kodira added.
Going by ‘Turn on the Light’ slogan, K’odira’s key policies are on unity, job creation for all, optimal exploitation of natural resources, youth and women empowerment, Education for all and poverty alleviation. He believes in working with the government to improve the road networks so that the region can fully exploit its potential. ‘Despite the region being rich in fish, Gwassi hills also receive enough rainfall annually and for that reason does well in agriculture, he notes. ‘Our people have been in the opposition for a long time and we have not experienced any development changes to write home, it’s time we worked with the government and see what that can bring’ Kodira added.
The reality of the situation is with the people who have the power to make their desired choice through the vote but the most paining thing in most circumstances is that people vote the party not individuals. Kenyan political parties/ outfits are majorly tribal and regional but still there are handful cases where individuals have been chosen over the party. In Kisumu for instance, having the ODM ticket makes you the ‘designate’ of the office even before elections are held but Hon. Olago Aluoch managed to clinch the Kisumu Town West parliamentary seat on Ford Kenya ticket after controversially losing the ODM ticket in a in 2013. Will K’odira the determined manage to successfully cut against the grains?
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Refer to the whistle blower report we published previously regarding the scandals at the East African Development Bank and the call to request the Director General Vivienne Yeda to step aside after 7 years of oppressive leadership at the Bank. Following the whistle Blowers dossier received by board members early June, Senior managers met with the Board members on the 15th July 2016 and were able to substantiate with evidence the details published about Vivienne Yeda, the Director General of EADB as true.
Despite the board members receiving collaborative evidence that what was written about Vivienne Yeda was the truth, Vivienne has been left to continue with her work as if nothing happened. More shocking details have emerged on how Vivienne Yeda has misappropriated the Bank funds in a number of ways as we shall explain in this article. Staff members are calling on the member states of the East African Development Bank including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania, to commission their respective auditor general’s offices to carry out an investigation on the actions of Vivienne Yeda and how she has squandered tax payer’s money. That she should be asked to step aside for the period of the investigations in order not to interfere with the investigations team. Despite the board members confirming the shocking revelations as true, they have done nothing to interdict her. You will know why no action has been taken in this article.
During the interview between the senior managers and the board members, the Directors were shocked to hear that staff never receive end of year bonuses even when the board has annually approved a budget of USD 65,000 annually for staff end of year bonuses. Vivienne has been drawing the entire USD 65,000 which ends up on her personal account. She normally channels such monies through the staff payroll which is managed by Deloitte to her personal account.
Such money is usually transferred to her account either at end of the year or beginning of the year. Investigations can be carried out at Deloitte to confirm the staff salary figures sent to them during these periods starting 2013/2014, 2014/2015 and 2014/2015. Staff members are still in shock that the Director General has been embezzling money meant for staff bonuses. Vivienne has also negotiated her salary increment with the board twice during her 7 years tenor at the helm of the Bank. The board approved both increments; one in the middle of her first five years and the second at the time when she was renewing her contract. Much as the board was shocked to learn that it’s only her who gets salary increments at the Bank.
The fact that she is the DG, Head of legal and Company secretary, she normally alters board minutes to indicate that he salary increment was to take effect one year back for the first increment and a couple of months back for the second increment. Looking at the staff payroll for the periods when her salary was increased, one would notice large sums of money which were channeled through the payroll to her account. Other such dubious payments have been taken out of the Bank to her account through the payroll. She uses the staff payroll to channel funds to her account because she knows the payroll is never scrutinized.
The former finance manager who resigned at the end of May this year was never allowed to look at the payroll because he would question such payments. We doubt that the board would approve bonuses and salary increments to only one person in the Bank. Red peppernews paper in Uganda and as per the whistle blower dozzier, informed you in their article of 13th July 2016 that staff don’t receive any form of motivation either through training and career enhancement or travel and exposure even when funds have been set aside for these purposes.
We confirm that unlike other previuos Director Generals, the Bank pays Vivienne both the profident fund, which she recieves annually and contributes towards her pension which she is supposed to receive when she leaves the services of the Bank. The annual provident fund payment is usually made directly to her account through the Bank’s SWIFT payment system and this appears in the general legder. The USD 65,000 mentioned above can not be her provident fund since it is paid out through the staff payroll. Towards the end of July 2016 even after the board had sat to discuss the whistle blowers report, she went a head to request HR to pay her pension through the end of July staff payroll. Pension is supposed to be paid when a staff member has left the services of the Bank.
But she wanted her pension paid out with the July salary. But after HR had consulted with the senior advisor to the DG, Mr. George Aaron, they declined to pay the pension to her because this would have been iregular. During last year, Vivienne requested finance department to pay her USD 175,000 calling it pension/provident fund in arrears which is fradulent. The finance department declined to pay the money to her account because she failed to provide clear documentation for the money. This needs to be investigated.
In 2014, the Bank was rated by AADFI as the best DFI in Africa.
This was after she had bribed the rating team to give her the top position. Much as one could say, this was good for the Bank’s image,it is not sustainable. The image of the Bank should be enhanced by improving gorvernance, systems, policies and structures in the Bank. At most, the rating agencies coud have been bribed when she is also doing much to improve the Bank. But this has not happened.
She has boosted of posting profits for the Bank, but this is all not true. A lot can be discovered in this area but we shall bring out on example when she has fradulently reported profits which is not real. The Bank is supposed to value all its assets annually and the valuation figures taken into consideration when reporting profits. The high the value of assets the higher the profits reports. Recently a firm was hired to value the Bank assets in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. The firm carried out the valuatioin exercise in all the three countries and submitted the reports to the Bank. She was okay with the value of assets in Kenya and Uganda. Because the Bank’s assets in Tanzania returned a lower real market value than she had hoped for, she asked the firm to inflate the figures of the value of assets in Tanzania, but the firm refused. she instead hired another firm which re-valued the assets in Tanzania to give them a value of her choice.
If she had used the real market value as reported by the first firm, it would have reduced the amount of profits reported. But the fact that the second firm hired agreed to her demands, they reported a value which she wanted, and as thus, this helped her to report an increased amount of profits. The Bank money twice for the same service and the results of the assignment were compromised. In the June dossier, we reported that she reported a wrong Non-performing loans percentage to the board of 0.83% instead of 5% during the end of Feb 2016 boarding meeting held in Nairobi. This was to avoid reporting on some Kenyan projects like DARI, Abarderes and Benvar Estates which were non-performing.
Non-performing loans are supposed to be provided for and if the mentioned projects had been reported and provided for, they would erode most of the profits she was reporting to the board. These two examples show Vivienne has been reporting fraudulent profits to the board to give them the impression that the Bank is performing well, when its actually not performing that much and not growing at the same time. This is fraudulent and false reporting to the board and should be investigated and stopped. So many other lies have been told to the board. Believe it or not, this is not sustainable.
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 22: Director General of East African Development Bank Vivienne Yeda speaks during the 30th Annual Awards Gala hosted by The Africa-America Institute at Gotham Hall on September 22, 2014 in New York City. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for The African-American Institute)
During the board which sat on the 14th July 2016, Vivienne falsified the portfolio report on the number and amount of projects approved and disbursed between January to July 2016. She reported some of the projects which were approved and disbursed in Q4 of 2015 as projects which were approved and disbursed in 2016 to confuse the board members since the previous dozzier had reported that only two projects had been approved for the entire bank between Jan to June 2016. All these lies are to show the board that she is performing when in real sense there are huge issues within the Bank. This can be verified with the Portfolio management unit in Bank, the chief internal auditor and the finance manager.
Board members were also shocked to learn that renovation of the Head office building on plot 4 Nile avenue cost the Bank (and the tax payer of East Africa) USD 6.6 million. The board did not know that the cost had escalated to this level because she did not seek board approval for the entire sum in one go. She presented the renovations budgets to the board in piecemeal. We believe USD 6.6 million could have put up a brand new building the size of the EADB head office and more. Of concern is that the contractors and the project managers who implemented the renovations were single sourced and the contracts negotiated and approved by herself. She has deliberately refused to put in place a procurement committee and at the same time the bank does not have a procurement expert to support these very expensive procurement contracts. We request that an audit in the processes and procedures of procuring and negotiating the renovations contract be investigated.
Experts can be called in to value the cost of the renovations to confirm that the work actually cost USD 6.6 million and that there was value for tax payers money. The renovations have gone on since 2012 until todate. The fact that the implementation team comprised her friends (project managers and architects who were handpicked from Kenya using a single sourcing method to manage the project), we believe the value of the contracts was inflated so as to give her kickbacks.
The same project managers and architects have been building a hotel and apartments for her in one of the national parks in Kenya which has just been completed. The construction of her hotel and apartments progressed at the same time with the office renovations and it is believed that money for some of the inflated office renovation bills went to her hotel construction.
Another building that has been renovated by the Bank whose renovation costs, value for money and the procedures followed to procure the service providers are being challenged, is a block of apartments commonly referred to as “block 4” in Naguru. The cost of USD 6.6 million mentioned above does not include the renovation costs for this block of apartments. This should also be investigated.
Senior managers have been shocked to hear that the information they provided to the board members confirming the allegations, even after the board chairman had assured managers that they were protected and therefore should not fear to say the truth, has licked to Vivienne including which manager mentioned what. Managers wonder why the board went on to ask the senior managers to expose themselves by revealing the truth, if they knew they were not going to take any action.
The result of this has exposed some managers to harassment and threats from Vivienne and her machinery. Some of these managers have received threatening phone calls indicating that something bad will happen to them and their families if they don’t stop revealing information about Vivienne Yeda.
The first whistle blower report and the red pepper article of 13th July reported that 99% of all international travels at the Bank are undertaken by Vivienne Yeda alone.
An analysis carried on the costs associated with her travels between 2013 and to date reveal that she spends not less than USD 135,000 per year on her travel related costs alone. This is a lot of money and therefore value for this money needs to be investigated.
As per the whistle blowers reported published in red pepper on the 13th July 2016, Vivienne Yeda refused to hire staff to fill all key vacant positions in the Bank and therefore heavily relies on the use of very expensive consultants who have cost the Bank a lot of money with no value for money. The Bank has a legal department with no lawyers at all. She single handedly sourced an international law firm called “Eversheds” based in London who have been doing the day to day legal work at the Bank. This law firm has todate cost the Bank USD 1.2 million to do work which would have ordinarily been done by the staff members in the legal department.
These colossal sums have been spent without a formal contract between EADB and Eversheds, (Atleast no staff member has seen the contract and the terms of engagement including the finance department that is always forced to prepare payments for such expenses. Noformal procurement procedures were followed and most importantly there is not value for money for the work this law firm has been hired to do for the Bank. It also emerged that Vivienne Yeda’s daughter who has been pursuing her studies in the UK worked at this law firm, raising question marks on the possible conflict of interest in giving this law firm huge sums of money. The work of eversheds, the procurement process and value for money should also be investigated.
The Bank received grants worth over USD 3 million from AfDB, DEG and KfW for various capacity building activities at the Bank. That fact that the Bank does not have a procurement committee and a procurement specialist; it becomes questionable how these huge contracts have been selected and awarded. Though for some grants especially from AfDB, the AfDB team got involved in the procurement of consultants though she still wanted to be fraudulent about the process. The fact that Vivienne Yeda single handedly approves the final bidders, to whom these consultancy contracts are awarded, raises several question marks. Some of the contracts cost over USD 900,000 per single consultancy contract.
The fact that key staff positions at the Bank are vacant due to the fact that several senior staff members have resigned because they could not continue working under such conditions. The capacity building interventions will not benefit the Bank much. For the Bank of less than 70 staff members, about 44 staff have resigned since 2012 todate. The systems and policies/operating guidelines being introduced in the Bank don’t add much value when the key users are not in their positions. In a letter written by African Development Bank after an audit they carried out at EADB in April 2016.
The report was addressed to Vivienne Yeda and signed by the Manager Portfolio Management Division atAfDB. The letter reads in part as an example “despite AfDB having given EADB guidance on procurement process for a credit cycle management consultancy firm, to undertake a credit management cycle documentation consultancy assignment at the Bank, Vivienne Yeda’s choice of the consulting firm to be selected was a Kenyan firm charging over USD 800,000 almost three times the price of the next candidate who charged below 300,000”. In AfDB’s opinion after reviewing the technical proposals and credentials of the other firms, the other two consultancy firms that had applied for the consultancy work were also well qualified to deliver the consultancy based on the terms of reference provided. It is possible that these consultancy contracts are inflated and the consultancy firms selected end up giving hefty kick backs to Vivienne Yeda. Most of the contracts with consultants and other service provider have been determined in this manner.
The African Development Bank audit report about EADB further reads in part, we quote “the AfDB officers who carried out the audit noted that, there were several bleaches regarding operational limits in treasury, bleaches in procurement guidelines, and non-compliance of policy in relation to credit approval of some of the high value transactions’. The report further read that “Management committee is effectively made of only the Director General (Vivienne Yeda) which we believe does not conform to best practice and does not exhibit good corporate governance”. These revelations make any one wonder why audit firms like KPMG who carries out quarterly audits at the bank for hefty sums of money have not been able to flag these weaknesses.
The Bank has an internal audit department, but the fact that they have been very critical of how Vivienne conducts bank business (they have reported to the board several times despite the board not taking any serious actions), she chose to frustrate them by not bothering about their reports. She instead chose to duplicate their role by hiring KPMG to carry out quarterly audit reviews at the Bank. Despite the fact that KPMG’s reports indicate that there are no issues at all at the Bank, they have cost the Bank and the tax payers money USD 382,000. We believe she retained KPMG to cover up her loot and since KPMG is looked at as a credible audit firm, the board members would not question their reports but also dismiss the issues raised by the internal audit. The annual financial audit is carried out by PWC, much as we are surprised that they have also not been able to raise a red flag (not even noticing that lots of money is chanelled through Vivienne Yeda’s account through the payroll, among other flaws) of the appalling situation at the Bank.
Vivienne Apopo signing a deal
When the whistle blower report which red pepper published on the 13th July 2016 first came out, Vivienne Yeda hired KPMG Kenya to come and investigate the source of the whistle blower dossier. It was surprising to see that a firm of KPMG’s caliber could accept to investigate the origin of the report as opposed to investigating the facts contained in the report. We believe they have been compromised by money. KPMG came into the EADB offices on the night of 23rd June 2016 in the absence of staff members and hacked into computers of all staff members to try and find out who might have originated the dossier but also to try and delete some of the documents that might be incriminating to Ms. Yeda. The fact that they copied information from hard discs of all staff computers, it is evident that all bank information is now in the hands of those individuals who took the information under the directive of Vivienne Yeda. KPMG went ahead to isolate some managers who were interrogated on 4th July 2016 and their statements recorded to try and find the originator of the dossier. KPMG Kenya has issued an invoice for USD 22,000 to be paid by the Bank (without any engagement letter and terms of reference) for investigating the whistle blower. This is not acceptable. She has hired full times services of an ex-police detective (a one Egessa) to try and investigate staff in efforts to identify the person who originated the dossier. This police detective together with one of the law firms which the Bank uses regularly have helped her to file a complaint which she has taken to Interpol asking them to give her additional protection (in disguise that her life is in danger) but also to give her permission to get staff phone records and also tap staff phone conversations.
This is not acceptable. She has hired full times services of an ex-police detective (a one Egessa) to try and investigate staff in efforts to identify the person who originated the dossier. This police detective together with one of the law firms which the Bank uses regularly have helped her to file a complaint which she has taken to Interpol asking them to give her additional protection (in disguise that her life is in danger) but also to give her permission to get staff phone records and also tap staff phone conversations.
The ex-police detective moves around office with a tape recorder recording staff conversation.
The reason it is being proposed that each EADB member state should commission their auditor general’s office to investigate the massive abuse of office and misuse of tax payers money at the regional Bank is that, each member state (Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania) contribute USD 4.5 million annually as their capital contribution towards the lending activities of the Bank. In other words, Yeda has at her disposal USD 18 million contributed annually by the member states from tax payers money in the hope that the Bank would lend out the money to befitting projects to promote social economic development among the member states.Seeing how the board has chosen to protect someone who is using tax payer’s money in this manner, one wonders why the governments should not channel this money in other useful projects if the Bank cannot get good leadership to enhance the mandate of the Bank. EADB should have been much bigger and visible that it is today if the Board had agreed to change the top leadership at the Bank.
This article reveals some shocking details as to why, despite all the information out there concerning Yeda’s abuse of power and office, she has remained in her office intact and untouchable. The Board members received the whistle blower dossier at the beginning of June 2016 as confirmed by Mr. Muhakanizi during the red pepper interview leading to the publication of 13th July 2016. The same was also confirmed by the chairman of the board on the 15th July 2016 when meeting senior managers of the Bank.
Anyone reading this would have expected the board to have taken immediate action (asking Vivienne to step aside for investigations jointly commissioned by the Bank member states to take place) but this has not happened. Usually under such circumstances, the board would convene urgently to hear from both sides, which they did (board sat one and a half months after they received the report). The board would recommend to the Governing Council of the Bank which comprises of the Ministers of Finance of the Bank Member states who have the powers to sack the Director General according to the charter that governs the Bank. 75% of the Governing board members must vote to sack her if she is to be fired.
Two weeks after the board confirming the allegations, the Director General is still going on with her work at the Bank as usual, and renovations and hiring of consultants is still going on. This procedure should naturally not apply under situations where it is clear that Bank funds have been misappropriated? Is has emerged that the board has remained divided on whether they recommend to terminate her contract or not. As opposed to normal practices in other financial institutions, EADB Board members are allowed to borrow from their own Bank (purely against good corporate governance practices). As earlier reported by the whistle blower and published in the 13th July red pepper, EADB board members borrow hefty sums of money from the Bank to run their personal businesses. Much as Mr. Muhakanizi in his interview with red pepper denied any board member applying for any loans from the Bank, we confirm that, in 2014 the Bank approved a loan of USD 4 million to Mr. Muhakanizi through a real estatescompany called Reunion Estates Ltd. The Bank approved a loan of USD 500,000 for another board member from Kenya called Mr. Francis Karuiru through his company “Edron Communications Ltd’ based in Kenya. Because of the above, board members have been compromised and therefore don’t want to make a firm recommendation to terminate the services of the mighty Yeda.
This being tax payers money, we call upon Governments to take action. The Ministers also don’t get detailed information from board members (who are their permanent secretaries) regarding the affairs at the Bank because of their vested interests which is purely a conflict of interest.
We also report that the Bank, its staff and assets are protected under diplomatic immunity. This means that Yeda and the Bank cannot be sued in local courts of law. This could also explain why she also went against the laws of the EAC member states that protects whistle blowers setting clear procedures to be followed when a whistle blower report comes out. It’s because of this immunity that she has had easy access to Interpol to start investigating who the author of the dossier could be so that the author is punished instead of the accused. A cover letter forwarding the whistle blowers report to the IGG and requesting them to launch an investigation into the abuse of office is attached to this dozzier, but because of the Bank’s immunity, it seems the IGG’s office lacks the Mandate to investigate the Director General.
We believe the immunity status was among others aimed at protecting the Bank and the tax payer’s money. Right now, the Bank’s diplomatic immunity is being used to protect an individual who has abused tax payer’s money. The rights of staff members are being infringed upon the fact that their phone conversations are being tapped; their phone records have been printed and investigated. These staff members are innocent and suffering because one person has bribed her way into impunity.
The auditor General offices among the Bank member states are called upon to investigate the allegations so that Vivienne can account for her actions. This will help retsorestability and growth at this regional Bank.
