AN uncalled for attack by Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa
against former Prime Minister Raila Odinga at a burial in Western on Saturday left mourners agape. The minister, fond of camping in the region every weekend attending burials, accused the former PM of maligning him at a public forum, leaving the mourners wondering if the CS was out to shore up his rating. Was he looking for fame by invoking Raila’s name to attract headlines or was he setting ground just in case he is sacked in the impending Cabinet reshuffle he will have someone to blame and use it to remain politically relevant? “We have never heard the former PM speak about Rashid, but we are surprised by his outburst against someone who even doesn’t know he exists, and never will they be peers,” some of the mourners said.
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VOLUNTARY and convincing is how neighbourhood and city clean-ups are supposed to be organised. For Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, this seems not the case with his Safisha Jiji initiative. In his monthly clean-up of the CBD, “volunteers” apparently mobilised to clean the city are promised handouts. This was the case on Saturday when those who took part in the Kawangware clean-up followed the governor all the way to City Hall, demanding their dues. Most were boda boda riders and youth. They outnumbered the security detail at City Hall, elbowed their way through the gate and camped on the corridors demanding their pay. The governor had to be hurriedly driven out of City Hall to avoid the embarrassment.
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ARE there personal differences between National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale and Environment Cabinet Secretary Keriako Tobiko? Some MPs were heard asking why Duale keeps on poking holes in the appointment of businessman Jaswant Singh Rai to sit on the board of the Kenya Forest Service. Well, the Rai family has interests in the paper manufacturing industry but the lawmakers recalled how Duale cheekily introduced the issue of Rai’s appointment during debate on contraband sugar. Is the Garissa Township MP playing his oversight role or driving a hidden agenda?
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SOME members of the joint committee probing the importation of contraband sugar are still not happy with the report tabled in Parliament last week. The MPs feel theirs was a lot of incompetence and score-settling in the typing of the 62-page report. The MPs wondered the wisdom behind recommending that DCI George Kinoti investigate issues of tax evasion instead of the KRA, which is the legally mandated body to assess, collect, enforce tax laws and net tax evaders. The lawmakers read a scheme to settle scores in the enlisting of DCI and bypassing the mandated relevant organs. “It was only last week that the past came haunting former DCI Ndegwa Muhoro, the young Kinoti should not allow himself to be used,” said one of the MPs.
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