Is there a well-calculated plan at State House to prevent Deputy President William Ruto from travelling outside of the country on official assignments? There are concerns within the DP's cycles that while President Uhuru Kenyatta, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and even some Chief Administrative Secretaries travel more often, the DP has been confined to events within Kenya. It is said that even under circumstances for which the President would want to be represented, State House operatives pick on Cabinet Secretaries and not the Deputy President, as used to be the norm. In a few days, Uhuru is expected to travel to Japan and Russia. Will he delegate one trip to his DP? And what might be the reason? To limit Ruto's international exposure and reduce his international stature, perhaps?.
Still on matters of travel, Corridors has been told of a first-term Jubilee governor who has set tongues wagging with his many foreign trips. The county chief has become a tourist. He last stepped into his office in July. The governor has toured at least five countries in three months and is currently on yet another trip. Senior officers and county workers were overheard saying they have been had a field day for three months because of his absence. Some of the staff, however, deplore the fact that the county has never benefitted from the governor's whirlwind trips, despite his claims that he has been wooing investors for county projects.
That some Kenyans, including senior government officials, are using offshore holding companies to avoid taxes is not news. What is news is the realisation by the Kenya Revenue Authority that the scheme is bleeding Kenya dry. It has now emerged that a company associated with a Cabinet Secretary is among the firms that artificially shift their profits out of Kenya. The firm used the corporate tax haven of Mauritius where the tax on interest payments are exceedingly low. taxed lowly. Could it also mean that the CS is hold a foreign account against the law?
The weeklong 2019 County Assemblies Sports Association games festivals in Eldoret ended on a high note, but an MCA from Western just had to ruin the party on the last evening. Perhaps after receiving his allowance, the ward rep thought he could entertain himself with a little beer but ended up having more than one too many. After consuming a number of bottles, the MCA became rowdy, harassed waiters and shouted obscenities as his colleagues watched in bewilderment. Bouncers at the club had to throw him out, maybe to save patrons as well as the image of the event, which was themed Sports and Culture as a Means of Cohesion.
