CORRIDORS OF POWER

What could Deputy President William Ruto have done to warrant underground attacks by a Chief Administrative Secretary? The former MP is said to be right at the nerve centre of those scheming and mobilizing resources for a team of politicians campaigning against Ruto succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta. During Jubilee Party campaigns in 2017 and even before the handshake between Uhuru and ODM party leader Raila Odinga in March, Ruto was the darling of the former MP and she defended him fiercely. And it was Ruto who pushed for her appointment as CAS. What has changed?

Is a subcounty land officer in Kisumu county too powerful even to dismiss directives from Ardhi House? Well,  the officer who has overstayed in the station is a law unto himself. Nobody, not even the local administration, dares challenge his irregular directives and the unlawful fees he charges clients who flock his office for the crucial government services. Moles in the office tell Corridors the officer has ignored a record ten transfer letters moving him from the station. He is said to be a member of a powerful cartel operating from Ardhi House.

A businessman who is a director of a software company that was awarded a tender by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission in the run-up to the 2017 general elections is a worried man. Reason? The man had used a senior official at the electoral agency to have his company slotted for a lucrative job to do with the candidates that were contesting for various positions with a promise that he would reward them. After the company was given the green light to provide the service and was paid, the man began dodging the junior officials who would have benefitted. Just last week, the officials met at a city hotel to brainstorm on how to expose the whole deal to the public and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations. According to a mole, the businessman has been daring the junior officials to take the matter to wherever they think, as he is too powerful.

Are foreign interests at the heart of a push for a merger or take over of one of the key state organizations? The merger or take over seems to have nothing beneficial for either the parties involved or Kenyans if what Corridors has learned is anything to go by. Some of the ardent proponents of the merger are doing so with the motivation of huge kickbacks from foreign agents. If the deal goes through, the foreign agents have promised to pay  Sh3 million monthly to every supporter for the next three year.