• Controversy continues to stalk the SGR even after the Chinese refused to lend President Uhuru Kenyatta money for the Naivasha-Kisumu stretch.
• Is the conservation industry cementing its reputation as the greatest cash cow in Kenya?
Image: FAITH MUTEGI
Just who is protecting a former government official in Western? The man known for his recklessness and verbosity seems to have reverted to his old type. Despite fingers pointing at him for links to criminal gangs terrorising, maiming and killing people in the village, he seems unfazed. It seems local police officers are not keen on zeroing in on him to unravel the financiers of the gangs. Corridors has learnt that the man's motive is to hold brief for faceless political power barons, and that come 2022, the gang could have instilled fear in the minds of the residents to disfranchise and subdue the village folks to follow a certain political persuasion. Now residents are looking up to Inspector General Hillary Mutyambai to intervene before the situation spirals out of control.
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Controversy continues to stalk the SGR even after the Chinese refused to lend President Uhuru Kenyatta money for the Naivasha-Kisumu stretch. Corridors has learnt that the insurance deal for the Mombasa-Nairobi Route under Chinese concession was awarded to a local insurance firm much to the chagrin of competitors. The award was renewed early this year to the same firm. Stakeholders are now waiting to see if the Nairobi-Naivasha stretch will be done the same way and awarded to the same insurance company.
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Is the conservation industry cementing its reputation as the greatest cash cow in Kenya? This is what many players are asking after an agency got millions of shillings from a donor to mitigate human-wildlife conflict, in the context of lions protection, in one of the leading national parks. Surprisingly the NGO that has no single project nor plans to run, received the money on the strength of a proposal that sited, quoted and used photographs of projects run by a host of volunteers not related to the NGO. This is not the first time the media-hungry NGO is taking credit and earning cash on projects ran by others. Players now want the new KWS director Brigadier John Waweru and Tourism CS Najib Balala to rise up to the occasion and bring transparency and accountability to the industry and stop those who use national parks and ride on others projects to fund-raise in foreign lands for cash. They also want the number and powers of NGOs in the wildlife sector clipped.
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In whose interest are some foreign nationals being detained at Mwiki police station a month after they were arraigned in court? The foreigners, some students while some are traders, were arrested in a swoop on illegal aliens and charged, where they were fined and others released. However, some languish at Mwiki police station at the mercy of the cops. There is no word about their fate. They have now appealed to the relevant authorities to either release or deport them instead of being held in incommunicado in a police station.
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Did politicians allied to Deputy President William Ruto know something the public was not aware of when they decided not to show up at yesterday's Labour Day celebrations at the historic Uhuru Park? Well, it seemed the event was well crafted to launch a scathing attack on the political wing of the ruling Jubilee Party with speakers carefully selected to achieve the goal. Some Ruto MPs were overheard claiming how such an important national workers event could be turned into a political rally against corruption. The youthful legislators were happy that they followed their instinct and skipped the event.