CORRIDORS OF POWER

Deputy President William Ruto’s whistle-stop blitz of five coastal counties at the weekend appears to have borne fruit after all. Someone whispered to Corridors that a woman legislator who has been a key figure in the Embrace Team could be warming up to Ruto's team. The DP's trip was seen as a charm offensive for his 2022 presidential bid and getting an influential legislator on board could be a welcome bonus. Furthermore, the Embrace Team has been traversing the country condemning early campaigns while fronting the Building Bridges Initiative, which Ruto has vowed to oppose if it recommends a more ethnically inclusive executive.

Barely a month after we reported that a crisis had hit a county in Western Kenya following revelations that a senior employee was not qualified for his job, detectives are now on the case. The official had been asked to resign, but he insisted that his academic papers were genuine. Corridors has learnt that police officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission are now investigating him. It is understood the investigations could extend to a university in the region where the official says he was conferred with the degree.

A former parliamentary aspirant in the last election is celebrating behind the scenes over a power struggle that has rocked a county assembly in Western. The aspirant has been holding secret meetings with MCAs to plot a coup in the troubled House. Moles told Corridors the plan is to make the assembly ungovernable and force a change of leadership from the party headquarters. He is lobbying at the party's headquarters to be included in the power matrix and has even dished out money to some party officials.

Postgraduate students at a public university are up in arms. Reason? A mole in the Nairobi-based university has told Corridors they are being frustrated by the registrar of academics, who is not eager to sign their exam papers. Several students have been camping in the varsity offices since Wednesday last week and to date, the registrar has been missing in action. The senior administrator is buying time and pretending to be busy. Now the worried students are of the opinion that with the slow pace of the registrar, they risk being locked out as the deadline nears. Their prayers are to the vice-chancellor to intervene.