Babu Owino's MP friends abandon him after attempted murder charge

Has the political class, especially ODM lawmakers, abandoned their colleague Embakasi MP Babu Owino? A group of the besieged legislator’s supporters was heard yesterday at the Milimani law courts asking why not a single MP visited the outspoken Babu since his arrest last Friday. It's a tradition to visit a VIP under arrest. Yesterday, only two MPs were in court as the lawmaker was charged with attempted murder in the gun drama involving DJ Felix Odhiambo, charges he denied. In his previous run-ins with the law, ODM fought tooth and nail to have Babu released. 

Has a politician who was among organisers of the Building Bridges Initiative meeting in Kakamega last Saturday gone into hiding? Well, a resident tells Corridors the politician from Western Kenya cannot be found at his home but he has been spotted around the county. The vocal politician is said to be avoiding his home after learning boda boda operators are looking for him to demand payment for services rendered during the BBI event at Bukhungu Stadium. The politician wanted to demonstrate he 'has the people'. So he needed to make a statement by making a grand entrance. The boda boda operators have been camping at his residence hoping he will show up and pay them for a ‘job well done’. Some are said to have pledged he will have no peace at his home until he fulfils his promise.

A Cabinet secretary is distraught after his efforts to lobby for a lucrative Cabinet slot he previously held were dashed in the recent reshuffle by President Uhuru Kenyatta in Mombasa. The CS, who has been vocal on an issue dear to the President's heart in a bid to catch the eye of his bosses, was fuming with rage. This was after it emerged the brokers he trusted to lobby munched his cash and vanished into thin air. The CS was heard saying the previous docket, though riddled with graft scandals, is a cash cow as it attracts donor funding and multi-billion-shilling projects. How will he navigate the current turbulent waters alongside the county chiefs and mint a coin?

Some Parliament folks are in pain after losing colossal amounts of money to a cartel of ‘shylocks’ to whom they lent cash to lend to broke MPs. The staffers have been giving as much as Sh300,000 with the hope of earning 10 per cent interest on repayment. However, those who have paid their money into the scheme now say they are unable to recover the principal. Their biggest worry is that members of the cartel are neither answering calls nor responding to messages demanding refunds.