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Kenya: The Cutting Edge
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The Nation (Nairobi)
COLUMN
4 July 2008
Posted to the web 4 July 2008
Nairobi
While he maintains that Kenya got a "sweet deal" from the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel, Finance minister Amos Kimunya's figures do not add up, says George M. Muthinja.
"If the one-acre plot next to the hotel was sold for Sh1 billion, the 2.5-acre piece on which it stands is worth Sh2.5 billion, and if the movables were valued at Sh900 million, then the Sh2.9 billion he got is Sh500 million short. Something is fishy here! Mr Kimunya can fool some people some time but he can't fool all the people all the time."
Kenya must be the only place where unknown people can own part of a public company and partake of the profits without ever getting identified.
It is the only place where ghosts can wire several million shillings to the Treasury as refunds when suspect procurement deals are exposed, says Peter Muthaura.
"The ghosts will be listed as directors of foreign companies and carry out enormous transactions. If those are not world wonders, what is?"
There is more to the condemnation of Mr Kimunya than meets the eye, says Muthoni Mbuthia. While making it clear she does not condone any wrongdoing, she feels that the MPs targeting the minister could be trying to get him out of the way so that the proposal to tax their allowances is shelved.
Says she: "He's the man who proposed the taxation of the MPs' allowances. Mmmmh.....would his exit shelve the tax idea for another year or more?"
On his part, Mungai Kihanya is disputing the assertion by some that the five-star hotel in Nairobi's city centre, whose sale has caused such a public outcry, could be worth Sh7.5 billion.
Says Mungai: "Do you know that the market value of TPS East Africa (the company that owns the Serena Hotels and Lodges) is some Sh7.622 billion? And yet the Serena Group has a good 15 five-star hotels!"
While agreeing with Mary Epson's praise for the contractor on the high quality of the recarpeting of Limuru Road, Martin Muriithi says the motivation may have been to cater for the UN staff at Gigiri, their visitors and other foreigners.
Had the project been meant for ordinary Kenyans, he adds, the nicely laid tarmac would have extended beyond the area. Not far from where the new surface ends, he reports, there has been a trench running across the road.
When he read about LM's little tale about the traffic police officer on a motorbike who impounded a matatu driver's licence and plucked the insurance sticker off the windscreen before ordering him to take the commuters to their destinations and head to the police station, Brian Ochieng says he was stunned by the officer's unprofessional conduct.
"How could he have told the driver to go onto the road without his licence and insurance."
Who will donate to Kenya Footbal Federation an electronic display board for use by officials to indicate the time left during Harambee Stars' Africa Nations/World Cup qualifying match in Nairobi against Namibia in September? asks ardent fan Calleb Ogutu.
Says he: "Despite the good showing by the national team, KFF continues to embarrass the whole nation by having officials wave wooden boards with handwritten numbers to show the time added on and during substitution."
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Have a stylish day, won't you!
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