CORRIDORS OF POWER

JUST why has Team Wanjiku lost steam this fast? The amorphous group of politicians headed by Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko and EALA MP Simon Mbugua had been traversing the country ‘selling’ President Uhuru Kenyatta’s handshake with ODM leader Raila Odinga and ‘supporting’ the government’s war on graft. They last addressed a rally in Naivasha three weeks ago. Well, Corridors of Power has established that a former governor, now a powerful man in the Jubilee administration, has suddenly withdrawn his financial support. It is still not clear why the man stopped the sponsorship. He was behind the formation of the team and was its main sponsor.

IT was reggae star Bob Marley who once remarked that the greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires but in his integrity and ability to influence those around him positively. However, for a governor from Western Kenya, all that matters is amassment, or so it seems from probes by anti-graft detectives. Sources told Corridors he is on the radar of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over suspicious accumulation of property. The assets the detectives are looking at include a hotel in Kisumu. The governor has always been seen as frugal in the expenditure of public funds. Maybe not all that glitters is gold.

COULD a deal reached by the teachers’ employer TSC and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers (Kuppet) be an arm-twist on the rival giant union Knut? The deal was reached in a meeting on Thursday and, among other things, will enable teachers allied to Kuppet to get a pay increase through implementation of the last phase of the collective bargaining agreement. On the other hand, those allied to Knut have yet to negotiate on the implementation of the last phase of the CBA. Undertones indicate the teachers’ employer could be using the deal to further stir revolt against Knut boss Wilson Sossion. This is already causing jitters in the Knut camp.

LAST week, we told you about two senior communication officers who nearly exchanged blows in the presence of journalists. The officers, a male and a female, are at it again. Insiders have intimated that the man, a former journalist, stormed his colleague’s office early this week, banging the table and shouting at the top of his voice. The man who is close to the county boss and calls himself the county’s chief communication officer attacked the soft-spoken lady for embarrassing him and vowed to teach her a lesson. The lady is now seeking an audience with the flashy governor to spill the beans.