The Anchor December 2009

MAIN STORY

Munuka's death exposes ODM-K

The Malili fiasco
By Martin Masai
DEAD men tell no tales. But that is not necessarily the case for the Late Josiah Munuka. As he lies in his grave, the last few weeks have been moments of revelation. When he lived, as chairman of the defunct Malili Ranching Company, the consummate businessman and former Chairman of the Machakos Chamber of Commerce and Industry cut the figure of a go-getter. The last year or so of his life, Munuka presided over one of the most secretive and most lucrative ventures ever witnessed in Ukambani- the sale of land at Malili Ranch. His craze for leadership in farmers companies saw him ravage Kyanzavi Farmers Company like a bush fire. He then leapt into Katelembu Farmers Co-operative, Kathekakai and Aimi ma Kilungu with quixotic alacrity. As he raced through these or­ga­ni­zations, Munuka left in his wake a ruinous history. In Kyanzavi, he was bundled out of the farm and it has never recovered. In his sub­se­quent slots, there hardly is a society that is standing on its feet. Last year, Munuka marshalled his troops to attempt to be elected in Konza Ranching but he was defeated and embarrassed as much at it can happen. In Malili, Munuka thrust himself forward and surprised many old shareholders of honour. When he finally got hold of all manipulative instruments to run Malili, he presided over its sub-division to share-holders. Soon, Malili became a prime sport when government came calling in search of land to build an ICT City. Suddenly, Munuka and close asso­ciates Peter Kanyi and J Kilonzo, buttressed by their lawyer Eric Mutua got closeted. A deal in their hands landed them in instant millions. Sh 400m was up for grabs to pay farmers for their land. By the time of his death, Munuka had paid himself some Sh. 40m. Kanyi pocketed Sh 91m and Kilonzo had his Sh 52m. Down the line, and apparently unknown to others, Munuka had paid a shadowy group a whopping Sh 40m in illegal commission. Prior to his death, his Uuniki Petrol station was a beehive of activity as farmers trooped in to surrender their letters of allotment in exchange of cash. They would be paid Sh 400,000 for land that he would soon sale at Sh 1.4m to the government. This is the nature of activity at the station. Interesting visitors too would come calling- Information Minister Samuel Poghisio and Vive President Kalonzo Musyoka, among other key people came calling. All these deals went on largely unnoticed by the larger public. Those who came selling their land went away as quickly as they arrived after being paid what they though was good money for their land even when they had actually been fleeced in broad daylight. Munuka and his gang were so me­ticu­lous that they had a standard agreement form drafted by Machakos Lawyers, who soon got into the gravy train and begun buying land in the area and selling it to government in rip-off transactions. By the time he answered his trumpet call, Munuka, Mr Mutua and his henchmen had shared over half of the Sh 400m that the government had paid for the land. Mutua got about Sh.28m in legal fees. So secretive was the deal that the government remained mum over the matter, making it possible for hun­dreds of Malili members to grope in the dark about their property. ™Had it not been for the death of Munuka, it may have been possible that the insider deals and rip-off by officials and well connected ODM-K politicians linked to Gateway Lo­gis­tics would still be going on today∫, said former Machakos Town MP Mwanzia Daudi, himself a share­holder of Malili who is yet to be paid for his land. Those keen to have the matter unravelled say Munuka's death has led to the realisation that graft cartels thrive in silence. ™ ™No one would have known that the VIP guests at Uuniki, which some of us call `Malili' anyway were fortune hunters coming to eat from the sweat of elderly Kamba investors∫, adds Mr Mwanzia. Observers say the Malili fiasco now speaks volumes about a possible ODM-K gov­ernment where Kamba leaders would most likely line-up to steal from their very voters. Former Kibwezi MP Kalembe Ndile poses ™ Why has the dominant party in the area- the ODM-K- keeping quiet when our people are being fleeced unless they are part of the thieves? When the matter came to public lime­light, Mr Kanyi and Mr Kilonzo were in court to answer charges of theft from Malili. Once released, they charged that ODM-K's Kangundo MP Johnson Muthama had triggered their arrest after they rejected his plea that Gateway be paid another Sh 70m in brokerage charges. Muthama owned up to triggering the arrests but claims he was safe­guarding members' interests but denied seeking payments of Gateway Logistics, a firm linked to a close associate of Muthama, ODM-K and Mutui Museo initiative Mr Issac Kalua. As we went to press, Kanyi and Kilonzo had been pressurised Muthama to relinquish their seats in Malili and remain directors and pressure was still mounting to have the brokers get their loot. Going by the altercations and pressure over Malili, it is difficult to absolve ODM-K from blame over the Malili fiasco as most of the players including Mr Munuka and Mr Kanyi are ODM-K key instruments and close confidants of party leader-the Vice Presi­dent Mr Kalonzo Musyoka (See his denial elsewhere in this paper). Residents now believe that had Mr Munuka been alive, theft in the Malili matter would go on unnoticed as the king pin and chess master would be in charge and able to use his long earned hand in business to silence all possible avenues of a leakage. Now residents say that the Munuka death, other circumstances not­with­standing, was not in vain.
How crafty officials siphon
FPE funds from Jogoo House INFORMATION is filtering through showing Machakos as being in the centre stage of the theft of millions of shillings from the Free Primary Education. Sources that are normally reliable to The Anchor say that operations to steal the funds originate from Ministry of Education offices.™ Plans for Machakos originate from Room 118 and not any where else∫, said the source. The thieves have identified a broker- a School Committee member from Kiteini Primary School in Machakos. The committee member goes to fish out for schools with corrupt leadership where the school heads and committees pledge to accept direct cash transfers from the ministry to the school's de­vel­opment accounts, share the proceeds and ©repartriate© a percentage to the origin at Jogoo House. In most cases, our source said, prospective channels of stolen money open new accounts that are kept secret. Cash wired to the schools is then shared among school committee members, Education Officers, Area Edu­cation Officials, Knut officials and head teachers of the re­spective schools. Senior Education officers in the dis­tricts are the one who carry the share of the origi­nators back to Jogoo House. Our sources indicate that at least 10 schools have been used as conduits of stolen cash. What looks curious in the case of Macha­kos is the fact that Macha­kos Knut Branch officials are key players in the schools where the cash was wired through. But the car­tels are said to target possible loud mouths so as to have a strong defence net­work when things go wrong. This explains why the Knut Branch in Macha­kos is mum over theft of FPE cash since reports emerged in The Anchor, six months ago Such schools are Mbukoni Pri­mary School that recently re­ceived Sh 250,000 outside the FPE official allo­cations. The School is believed to be a known beneficiary of stolen funds and has benefited more than twice. Anther beneficiary is Mlolongo Primary School in Athi River Dis­trict and Katani Primary School, also in the same district. Machakos Knut branch officials call the shots in these schools and panic is sweeping through the branch especially after the Union bosses it Knut Hall said each teacher in the saga will carry his own cross. Our investigations show that one of the Knut officials at one time was involved with the theft of Sh 200,000 at Ngelani Ranch Pri­mary School, along with an education officer now serving in Machakos. When The Anchor re­ported the theft of the Ngelani cash, the thieves begun re­paying the cash at an account in Macha­kos KCB branch, yet no action has been taken to punish the thieves, a promise for action by the Macha­kos DEO Abdulkadir Ali notwithstanding. The Ngelani cheque was initially cashed through a brokerage in Machakos Town and it was then Banked through Family bank, where it was formally liquidated. Other schools that have been used include Yakamete Primary, Ngomeni Primary, Ngomeni Sec­ondary, St Paul's Pri­mary, Athi River, Makadara Primary, KMC Primary, Kinanye Primary, Kombuni Primary and Kiteini Pri­mary itself. Kiteini is fabled as one such school that is well connected to the thieves at Jogoo House. Kombuni and Katani Primary Schools are also beneficiaries of Sh 2.1m each from the Oil Pro­ducing and Exporting Countries(OPEC) but have vir­tually nothing to show for it, yet there has been no action on those who plundered the cash. Those who know the extent of the theft are laughing at the buffoon­ery stance by Minister for Education Pro Sam Ongeri, an indication that he is com­pletely out of touch with gangs in his office that commit robbery with­out violence. The extent of the theft is such that investigators will have to probe all school accounts to verify accounts used purely for the si­phoning of the funds from Jogoo House. Stay Anchored! Citizens want politicians out of devolved funds
A cross section of Kenyans are up in arms against MPs' interference with man­agement of devolved funds, re­search findings say. Citizens interviewed on how the funds could be har­mo­nized have sited in­ter­ference from the political class as a major obstruction to the funds effective imple­men­tation. Respondents in a survey titled Har-mo-ni-zation of De-cen-tralized De-vel-opment in Kenya: Towards Alignment, Citizen Engagement and Accountabil-ity, also indicated the need to enhance transparency and accountability in the administration of the funds. The study also reveals that despite sig­nifi­cant im­provements in service de­liv­ery by decentralized funds over the past six years, most devolved units face a wid­ening gap between demand and supply of services. This has resulted in citizens losing confidence in de­cen­tralized development in Kenya as an institution that can meet their needs and respond effectively to the challenges they face. The citizens growing alienation from local development means that while Kenyans are demanding more and better services, they are also less likely to contribute to local development through their own actions and ini­tiatives because of the multiplicity and duplicity of funds. According to democracy and de­vel­opment think-tank, Social and Public Accountabil­ity Network and the Kenya Human Rights Commission SPAN-KHRC, this is turning the funding into cash cows. The research respondents also provided a checklist of characteristics describing their most preferred frame­work which in­cludes management of the funds under one umbrella/ ministry, establishment of a bas­ket fund, and clipping of political in­ter­ference in man­agement of the funds among others. The study focused on seven funds (Con­stituency De­vel­opment Fund - CDF, Local Authority Transfer Fund - LATF, Roads Maintenance Levy Fund - RMLF, Free Pri­mary Education - FPE, Con­stituency Bursary Fund CBF, Water Services Trust Fund WSTF and Con­stituency AIDS Control Fund - CACF) that have di­rect impact on Edu­cation, Health, Water & Sanitation and Roads sectors. Kenya's latest network of local gov­er­nance citizens' organisations, Social and Public Accountability Network and Kenya Human Rights Commission (SPAN-KHRC) to­day launched a report outlining the critical governance struc­tures needed for the har­mo­ni­zation of de­cen­tralized development in Kenya. It comes in time to contribute to dis­cussions on devo­lution in the Harmonised Draft Constitution. The report, reviews the current un­cer­tainties asso­ciated with decentralisation in the attainment of sus­tainable human development goals where their development and commercialisation is outpacing government oversight, risk management and public de­bate. It examines regu­latory initiatives and re­sponses, voluntary codes and practices and the progress of co­op­eration in coordinating decentralised development governance. In Kenya today, there are over ten dis­tinct decentralized public funds available at Ward, Constituency and District levels. This in itself is the very first challenge posed by decentralization of services to local level; the du­pli­cation of implementation jurisdictions and multiple funds to address the same needs in one area. Individual citizens who need to access services and community based civil society groups in­ter­ested in monitoring the same are easily deterred by the overlaps between administrative and electoral boundaries. Below are some of the key findings of the research: l Citizens' awareness of the de­cen­tralized funds is generally high (with CDF leading at 96%), Free Primary Edu­cation ranked second highest at 90% and the Bursary Fund was third highest at 88.3%. The Water Services Trust Fund (WSTF) is least known at 40.7% among the seven funds stud­ied. l Generally, respondents felt that there is du­pli­cation of efforts among de­cen­tralized funds. This takes place even with such in­sti­tutions as DDC which are mandated to coordinate district de­vel­opment. Some 44 per cent of re­spon­dents held the view that there were duplication concerns, of whom 16.1% said the extent of duplication is high, 8% said duplication is very high while 9.3% said the extent is moderate. The remaining re­spon­dents in­di­cated du­pli­cation was low or very low. ¥ Interpersonal communication was the most re­liable way of getting in­for­mation on most of the de­cen­tralized funds for a ma­jority of the respondents. This signifies the importance of `social capital' and hence the need for citizens' empowerment for better quality man­agement of decentralized de­vel­opment. Interpersonal commu­ni­cation as indicated by 24.8% and 22.0% of re­spon­dents respectively. Other reliable sources of getting information about decentralized funds in­clude Radio at 21% for CDF and 20.8% for FPE. The barazas also give information on CDF (15.7%), LATF (14.2%) and Bursary (14%). SPAN-KHRC's first report entitled Harmonisation of decentralised de­vel­opment in Kenya: Towards alignment, citizen engagement and accountabil­ity also highlights some of the key challenges such as governance issues, duplication of development initiatives and widening inequalities. As decentralized funds phenomena in­creasingly gains momentum; many stake­holders get involved in developing strategies for the management of these funds. It is for this reason that SPAN-KHRC partners and KHRC commissioned this study to make a contribution for better management of decentralized funds in Kenya. Kalonzo's passionate plea to Kenyans
ahead of next General Elections The Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, made it clear that he will vie for the top post in the country come 2012 general elections. However, and sadly so, the Vice Presi­dent turned tribal and said his tribesmen will team up with other tribes ready to forge a united front that will back their candidate unlike in the past when his tribe was allegedly be­trayed. The VP who coined the infamous KKK political outfit listing Kamba, Kalenjin and Kikuyu for possible political alliance for 2012 or whenever stopped short of re­peating the same line thought that many have condemned as unfortunate, coming from a supposedly national leader. Ever since, Mr Musyoka has appeared to distsnce himself from the remarks when­ever it is seen in bad light. But he seems enthusiastic about the pssibility of such an alliance, especially if he is named as leader. Be that as it may, signals coming from Rift Valley indicate that thought support for KKK can not be ruled out, they may be haing different ideas about a possible Kamba leadership of KKK. Chepalungu MP Isaac Ruto is on record as saying that the Alliance would have William Ruto run as President and Uhuru Kenyatta being the Prime Min­is­ter. Mr Musyoka would be Ruto's running mate and thus retain the slot of VP, a situation that is un­acceptable to Mr Musyoka. This line-up, coming from the Rift Valley shows that they still do not see Mr Musyoka as a valuable political jewel either in 2012 or when­ever. Nevertheless, Mr Musyoka pleaded with people of all walks of lives including church leaders to pray for him as he braces for the tough challenge. `'I have already tested the waters be­fore and this time round there is no doubt God will be with me for the victory'' he said. The VP said this at Mumbuni AIC church where he presided over a funds-drive in aid of the church where he donated Sh. 250,000. Mr Musyoka who later addressed a pub­lic rally at Mulu Mutisya gardens in Macha­kos town, (See separate story else­where) said some people had been hired to ridicule his name but their efforts will be futile. `'Let them continue with their mission of insulting me but as long as I have the support of majority of my people this will never worry me at all'' he said. Of late, the VP is facing severe criticism over his performance in the region. Resi­dents say they are not seeing the fruits of the position of VP and are loudly won­dering whether he can per­form better even if he became Presi­dent. Critics are citing the performance of Wa­ter and Irrigation Minister Charity Ngilu in the region since she became minister in 2003. As minister for Health, Ngilu made a difference in all health institutions. Now as Minister for Water and Irri­gation, Ngilu has mobilised re­sources to end wa­ter shortage in Uka­m­bani, a performance never seen from a cabinet minister in the region since independence. Kalonzo's team has been rubbishing these deeds saying Mrs Ngilu is after all using public resources.Kalonzo him­self is the longest serving MP and minister in the re­gion and his own Mwingi North Con­stituency has nothing to write home about, though he re­mains very popular. Observers are asking even if Mrs Ngilu is using state resources, are these re­sources not available to the VP in even greater proportions since he holds a position higher up in the pecking order? Or could it be true that his po­sition as VP has no meaning or in­fluence other than just the big title? Or was the position meant to benefit a single person ? Questions must be asked. The VP was accompanied by Mwala MP Daniel Muoki, Machakos town coun­ter­part Victor Munyaka, assistant minister Bifwoli Wakoli and Kangundo MP Johnstone Muthama. Theft of Free Primary Education funds threatens education in Machakos The education sector in Macha­kos is facing crisis and leaders in the sector must con­front their points of weakness to come out of the abyss. The crisis is a culmination of re­ports that The Anchor has been publishing for al­most a year now, reports which are now vin­di­cated by a decision by the British Gov­ernment to suspend its spending of the Free Primary Edu­cation. Each new day reveals major evils of mis-management in primary and secondary schools and this demonstrates how vul­nerable the free education funds can be ex­posed to. The list is growing rapidly and sources say that the entire education sector is in dire need of action to end wanton theft of funds. Reports about theft in Macha­kos girls, Katoloni, Ngelani and many others remain mere accounts of in­epti­tude and no action is taken. In most cases, teachers who steal cash are merely moved to other schools so that they can con­tinue stealing. Kenyans pay tax and deny them­selves luxuries in order to support the gov­ernment in its endevour provide FPE only for the funds to be diverted by well connected cartels to enrich them­selves. The cartels, sources say, are made up of head teachers, Principals, Education offi­cials and Knut offi­cials. They have teamed up to make a strong army of English speaking robbers whose main con­cern is not education any more. School heads who steal share their loot with education and Teachers Service Commmission officials for protection and right posting. Sources say teachers pay as much as Sh 100,000 to corrupt TSC Staff to be pro­moted to Principal. Primary School teachers also bribe District and Area Edu­cation Officers to be promoted to headship and ensure that they con­stantly steal from their schools and share the loot with the DEOs and Knut officials to sus­tain robust protection. Machakos District is one such are where stealing is no longer an issue in education circles. Indeed the more one steals, the more one is celebrated and promoted. As we went to press, no action had been taken to punish a head teacher and edu­cation officials who stole Free Pri­mary Education cash from Ngelani Primary School in Athi River. The ministry must take immediate steps and action to put this mess under control. The media exposes evils in the society and those who are supposed to take charge ignore or deflect it all together. The ministry should introduce new ethics to its greedy officers to bring prosperity to the sector. The ministry officials have del­egated their duties to a KNUT official who manipulates everything and decides which officer should be deployed where and which teacher headswhich school. Knut decides who should be promoted and pupils have become the innocent victims. Thus is because corruptly promoted heads embezzle funds for purchase of books, resulting in lack of books and other ma­te­rials for learning, denying them access to quality education. Even after The Anchor broke the news of missing FPE funds from Ngelani primary school, the Districts Education officer moved quickly and denoted the Head teacher a Mr. Kaloki and deployed him at Ikokani primary 3 Kilometers from Macha­kos town. Stakeholders now want the Auditor and Controller General's office to carry out forensic audit to establish how much money had been misdirected and Mis- used. The district audit team in the min­is­try of education had visited the school but failed to detect anything, obviously after officials were bribed to turn in the other direction and let thieves off the hook.. The Anchor can now reveal that over Sh 510,000 is missing from the school and books procurement tell the story that Free Primary Education has brought a new cash cow to the door-step of civil servants. There is c;lear evidence that the school never nought any books since the ineption of FPE since books ordered never reached the school and others were said to be out of stock and teachers would be told that the books would be brought late. Two lorries of building stones donated by a politician to construct the school gate was also misdirected and used to con­struct school toilets that have had to cost the government over Sh 400,000/= the said toilet had to get another funding Sh 16,000/= from felling school trees that had to be sold to complete the project. Despites the generous gestures by the government to equip and maintain the school, Std 4 and Std 5 blocks today have no cement floor and the office, staffroom and other blocks are not connected to elec­tricity provided to the school by stake­holders.
Graft allegations as Ex MP Grace
Mwewa runs public school MOI Girls Secondary School in Makindu District is in trouble following the dis­bandment of the School Board as forces of corruption overrun the public in­sti­tution. Reports reaching The Anchor from the school indicate that the board was dis­missed after questioning the law un­der which its self styled Patron Mrs Grace Mwewa was running the public institution. Mrs Mwewa is a Commissioner of the Kenya Meat Commission and a director of the Water Services Trust Fund. Public Schools are run under the Edu­cation Act which vests authority to manage pub­lic Schools in the Board of Governors. But this particular school is suffering under a duality that ensures that Mrs Mwewa, a former nominated MP is patron. It re­mains unknown under what law she became patron or the circumstances under which the Ministry of Education recognizes her as such. Our sources say the Kibwezi DEO dis­banded the board to stymie a raging war between it and Mrs Mwewa after the board questioned massive theft of funds in the School. It is said that an Audit Report is cir­cu­lating in Public Offices naming names of sus­pects who have placed themselves strategically to loot public funds at the school. The massive report on Moi Girls Sec­ondary School reveals misappropriation of funds in the school. The report revealed that fees charged was unaccounted for , partly used receipt books were not put into use again the following year and analysis of daily fees collection was not done. The school had no safe or cash box leading to money being put in drawers and lockers. The school had four bank accounts, a boarding account at K.C.B Kibwezi whose balance was 231,258 as at 11th August. The school keeps three bank accounts-a tuition Account at K.C.B Kibwezi branch whose balance was Sh. 45,215 as at Au­gust 11 2009, an Operational Account at K.C.B Kibwezi with a balance of Sh. 232,517 and a Donation account at Barclays which was empty at that time. The school maintained 3 cheque books for each account. The bank signatories were Dr.Joshua Maingi B.O.G Chairman, Hon Grace Mwewa B.O.G Member and Patron, M/S Ruth Muia Principal and B.O.G Member, Mrs Ida Ochieng, B.O.G Mem­ber. The total amount of donations was 5,406,100 received from a donor group by the name Chad J. Cooper whose based in the United States of America which had not been receipted in the official school receipt book. The cash book had not been written and no reconciliation statement had been pre­pared for the current year. A tender committee had been formed but was not functional due to interference from the school Patron Mrs Grace Mwewa, the re­port says. It is also alleged that Mrs. Mwewa also drove away 8 cows belonging to the school. She also was in possession of a school vehicle KAG Peugeot which she took to the school on learning that there were assessors from the Ministry Head­quar­ters who were bound to visit the school. Even then, the school was not reg­is­tered as the owner of the vehicle in the logbook hence ownership has not been transferred to the school. In­ter­estingly, the vehicle was sold to the school by Mrs Mwewa. A Harambee was organized by Mrs. Mwewa which was attended by the former President Moi where Sh. 1,500,000 was raised and was deposited in the school fixed account at KCB Kibwezi Branch. This fixed deposit account matured on 16.08.08 and only Sh436,379.95 was trans­ferred to the school fund account on 24.10.08. The difference of ksh 1,063,620.05 was misappropriated by the principal and the school patron, those who saw the report say. Our usually reliable sources say what is going on in the school is what may be going on in other schools in the district where education officials close their eyes to corruption since the stolen monies grease education officials from the grassroots to Jogoo House. Contacted for comment, Mrs Mwewa con­firmed that the board had been dissolved for holding school meetings in expensive hotels in the city. She denied that she has plundered resources in the school but confirmed that she was now in charge as Patron and Founder of the school, positions that are not recognised by the Education Act. She accused her political opponents of manufacturing an audit report implicating her in malpractices. " If I were you I would ignore the report altogether. After all I have used own resources to develop the school. It is not run like public Schools", Mrs Mwewa said and stopped short of de­claring that the school is not a public one. Her remarks show that a long drawn war is expected to wrestle the public utility from her stranglehold. The Anchor, in keening within its man­date to its loyal readers will run it verbatim in the January edition. Stay Anchored! Kitui Teachers Collage Board launched THE government and Kitui District leaders have launched the Kitui Teachers Training College . The event was held at the Kitui District Commissioner's office under the chair­manship of the District Edu­cation Officer Boniventure S.Wasikoyo. The recruitment for the students at the college commences in September next year. The Kitui High School that owns thou­sands of acres of idle land, has offered some 45 acres of its land for the construction of the Kitui Teachers Training College . The school had earmarked the 45 acres for the construction of the Kitui Girls High School . But the 45 acres are to be shared by the college and the girls school. In atten­dance included the Water and Irri­gation Minister Charity Kaluki Ngilu and the retired Anglican Church of Kenya (ACK) Archbishop Ben­jamin Mwanzia Nzimbi. Kitui Dis­trict Commissioner Joshua K.Chepchieng was represented by the Central District Officer (DO), Miss Chris­tine Moraa. The acting Deputy District Education Officer Peter Maundu was also in atten­dance. The leaders conducted elections for the college's Board of Gov­er­nors (BOG) where Dr. Leonard Mu­tua Mengo was elected the board chairman. Mrs. Joyce Ngina Simitu was elected the board secretary. And Archbishop Nzimbi, Japheth Kiteme Mwalimu and Jane Musangi Mutua were elected the ex­ecutive committee members. Ngilu thanked them for the appointments and peaceful elections. She asked them to ensure that their dream comes true for the good of the Ki­tui people. The minister assured the committee that she will support it in all its endeavours in terms of ma­te­rials and others. For his part, Wasikoyo also con­gratu­lated them and wished them well in their new offices. He assured them that his office will give them the necessary support. Kilonzi is out of
Machakos School LONGEST serving Principal of Machakos School Mr David Kilonzi has finally been removed. Kilonzi goes to Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters to join his old friend TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni in an undisclosed capacity. His replacement is Mr Dominic Masaku, who is leaving Kathiani Boys High School. Mr Kilonzo is leaving with his relatively long serving deputy Mr Nicholas Mutemi, who goes to little known Song'eni Day School in Tawa, relieving Mrs Zuhra Rajab, who has been moved to head another Day School in Nairobi. Zuhra was moved to Song'eni in controversial circumstances mid this year after serving as Deputy Principal in Machakos Girls for a long time too. She was moved at the height of the reign of fire spitting former Principal Mrs Joyce Kikuvi, who was relocated to Thogoto TTC amid clear evidence of mismanagement of the school. Mrs Mulatya succeeded Kikuvi in Machakos Girls, bringing calm to the then troubled school. Mr Kilonzi was serving in his eighth year and his tenure will be remembered as one of the most chaotic in history. The School closed this term under police guard as his administration clearly failed to maintain discipline among the boys, instead relying on the police to contain the boys. Feuding in Mbooni CDF
rages as manager is moved out
The controversy surrounding the Mbooni CDF leadership in­ten­sified when the em­battled CDF manager failed to turn up for a handing over exercise forcing it to abort at the elev­enth hour. The meeting held at the Tawa Social Hall chaired by the Mbooni CDF Chairman Cllr Nzeki Mutulili, had been convened to handover a new manager Mr Japheth Musee, office after Mr George Malinga, was transferred out of Mbooni following a se­ries of lead­ership wrangles with the CDF committee. Among those present at the meeting were the Mbooni District De­vel­opment Officer M/s Ann Mulea and the CDF internal au­ditor Mr Eliud Muchira, who had to leave without any deliberations after Mr Malinga failed to show up. The chairman had to call off the meeting after a day long wait for the former man­ager who later was said to have talked to one of the committee members on phone and indicated that he was not coming since he had had not been in­formed of the meeting. Those who expected Mr Malinga to hand over were merely pretending because they knew Malinga had no means to hand over. His CDF office has been closed on the orders of Mr Jackson Ngovi for three weeks now. Ngovi phoned the office assistants at the CDF office and told them to lock up the office and go home so as to keep Mr Malinga out of the office. The order was later ratified by Mr Mutulili. So as they set the handing over ceremony, the pair, who reason in a strange manner knew that the CDF manager had not had access to the office to prepare any handing over notes. Malinga must have used this excuse not to be present and it is ulikely that the pro­cess will take place without the su­per­vision of more sober officials who are genu­inely con­cerned about the safety of public funds. Indeed the news of Malinga's departure may begin a process and opportunity for the Mutula Kilonzo to end mayhem in his CDF management that will most likely be blamed on him. But the chairman Mr Mutulili, dismissed the manager's claims of ignorance saying they had earlier agreed to meet for the handing over something which the man­ager was much aware of. The bitter committee officials accused the former manager of sabotaging Mbooni CDF projects by refusing to co-operative in ev­ery aspect and having chosen to isolate him­self. The officials said many de­vel­opment projects had stalled beginning with that of the sh2million edu­cation bursary kit after the former manager de­clined to pro­cess official document by absenting himself from the CDF offices since early this year. They appealed to Mr Kilonzo, the area MP and Con­sti­tu­tional Affairs Min­is­ter who also is the CDF pa­tron to in­ter­vene and force the former manager handover office. They also demanded that the former man­ager be investigated over alleged malpractices involved in the issuance of some unspecified CDF cheques which were not endorsed and sanctioned offi­cially by the committee among other scandals. This is a strange claim as the manager is not a signatory of the cheques. Those who know Malinga believe that he has a can of worms belonging to the current CDF team that he will open up in coming days. The chairman re-scheduled another handing over exercise when they expect the former manager to be compelled to attend. But they must first let him enter his office, even if under police escort, to prepare handing over notes. Contacted, the former manager in­di­cated unwillingness to giving any press re­sponse since he was not authorised to do so in­sisted he was not aware of such a meeting and declined to comment fur­ther. The former manager was sent packing two weeks ago by the CDF committee after they broke ranks resulting to his transfer out of the area after the committee re­solved not to work with him for failing to sanction the Sh. 2million allocated for education bur­sa­ries for this year which is still pending at the CDF education kit account unattended, forcing many appli­cants who were college and uni­ver­sity students to drop out of school after the CDF failed to honour the pledges issued to the Institutions. Mr Mutula has so far opted to remain mum over the matter as things get out of hand. Makueni tops in CDF allocations

MAKUENI Constituency remains the region's top beneficiary from the Constituency Development Fund. It received Sh. 71,975,743 in the 2009/2010 Financial Year Allocations, bringing to Sh 329,505,769, the total amount received from the kitty since the in­ception of CDF in 2003. It is followed by Kitui Central that got Sh 68,048,570. It has so far received Sh 311,854,623 since CDF begun op­erations. It is followed by Kan­gundo Constituency with Sh 22,963,724. Machakos Town still remains at the bottom of the table, receiving Sh 48,135,184 in 2009/2010. It has so far received Sh 222,154,175 from the kitty. This means that Makueni got over Sh.100m, more than Machakos Town over the years. The Anchor now publishes these figures so that citizens know how much the government has sent to the con­stitu­encies through CDF. Citizens are encouraged to get involved in the management of the money to ensure that officials and MPs do not use the cash to enrich themselves. So what criteria does the CDF use to allocate money? Why is it that some constituencies, some neighbouring one another get contrasting figure like the case of Makueni and Kaiti? 2.5 percent of all the Government ordinary revenue collected every year is paid into the fund. Three quarters of the 2.5 percent is divided equally among all the constituencies, a quarter of the 2.5 percent is divided by the National Poverty Index multiplied by the con­stitu­encies poverty index. The Fund was established in 2003 through the CDF Act in the Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 107 (Act No. 11) of January 9th, 2004 whose main objective was to fight poverty and shift planning/identification of projects to the local communities, hence a bottom-up planning approach to development. Mbooni fails to allocate 2009 bursaries Residents of Mbooni Con­stituency want the local CDF committee explain why the Sh.2m kitty set aside for bursaries since January this year is yet released. The residents, mostly college and uni­ver­sity students who had applied for the cash said they had not received any money so far. The students and their parents were in­con­ve­nienced by the failure to release the money after some completed their studies this year with fees arrears that was to be cleared by the bursary kit. `'We want the area MP Mutula Kilonzo to intervene and explain why this happened.Is it a case of inefficiency on the party of CDF or is is a plot to steal the cash'' asked the prospective ben­efi­cia­ries. They also want the CDF committee thor­oughly investigated and overhauled to pave way for an efficient one that will not in future cause such inconvenience to us'' they added. But contacted the CDF chairman Cllr Nzeki Mutulili, admitted the delay to release the money arguing that it had been caused by the failure by te CDF manager to co-operate with his committee. `'Yes I admit the students' complaints are true but the blame goes to the CDF man­ager who has been a liability to us whenever we ask him to sign checks to release such monies to the ben­efi­cia­ries'' he added. Mr Mutulili however, said the money was in safe custody and would be disbursed soon after their differences with the man­ager are over. But contacted, the outgoing Mbooni CDF manager, Mr George Malinga, dismissed the chairman's claims saying he had been put in an awkward situation by the committee that insisted he should pro­cess the release the money without any min­utes. `'The chairman and the committee has been pushing me around to release the money out of procedure and at my own risk'' he said . Mr Malinga argued that the committee wanted him to take shortcuts through which he releases the money without any docu­men­tation after which he would be held responsible for its accounting. He said existing bad blood between him and the committee developed when its members wanted extra sitting allowances that he could not sanction. Mr Malinga who is in the process of being transferred out of Mbooni to Machakos (see separate story) due to the grudge said the money was safe in the CDF accounts. Malinga's exit from Mbooni is welcome re­lief to residents and is certainly wel­come for the Mutulili team. For Mutulili, he sees a wonderful oppor­tu­nity to operate without the re­cal­ci­trant presence of Malinga, whom he viewed as a roadblock to swift fi­nan­cial transactions. Malinga has truly rejected open efforts to siphon cash from the kitty, not nec­essarily because he is a clean man, but because he wanted Mutulili to rec­og­nize his office. Until his departure, Malinga was seen as the last man standing in the way of abuse of funds. The better option for Mutula Kilonzo is now to rout Mutulili and his reti­nue of greedy councillors who hover around the CDF kitty the way hyenas hover around a carcass. For it can never be truly said that CDF in Mbooni is being run in the best way possible. The Mutulili-Malinga gang must first account for who allocated the con­struction of the Mau Drift that both of them deny responsibility over even as the taxpayers money is channelled to be paid to the contractor who has papers signed by bonafide CDF leaders. CDF Mbooni has been in turmoil since the gang connived to remove former chairman Peter Mwanthi in the hope that they could pilfer funds at will. Observers are wondering what exactly Mr Kilonzo is waiting for before taking action because a failed CDF committee will im­pact negatively on him first before hitting anyone else. `The more Mutula ignores the war within his CDF, the more the noose tightens on his neck'said Alf Mutie, a civic educator in Kikima Market. Machakos CDF staff bully official Machakos Town MP, officials held a meeting and plotted to block posting The Machakos Town CDF offi­cials faced the beleaguered former Mbooni Con­stituency De­vel­opment Fund man­ager George Malinga and ejected him from the Machakos CDF office. Mr Malinga's letter of trans­ferred to Macha­kos was re­ceived in the office a month ago and the CDF team begun con­sulting loudly on whether to accept him or not. He was to take over from Mr. Paul Kimilu who was trans­ferred to Mwingi con­stituency and left Mr.Crispine Ngugi acting as both Kathiani and Machakos funds accounts man­ager. Malinga virtually sneaked into the offices before working hours apparently to take over quietly after failing to secure an appointment with local MP Victor Munyaka and without the knowl­edge or presence of the CDF chairman Mr Jackson Kilundo.The CDF Treasurer, a Mr Mumo noticed the pair doing their thing and a fierce altercation en­sued, drawing attention of nearby workers. The CDF chairman after being contacted ordered they be re­moved from the office, further aggravating the tension and drawing the larger public into the fray. Youth believed belonging to Muvango Mi­li­tia, a band of youth normally working with Dr Munyaka, alias Muvango Muvangoni, joined the mayhem and Malinga was now a cor­nered man.The resi­dents who had con­verged at the out­side of the Machakos CDF building later mobilized other residents and dem­on­strated with twigs and banners ± an in­di­cation that Malinga's rejection had been planned and rowdily executed. Malinga had to seek refuge at the DC's office where the dem­on­strators none­theless stormed to declare that they would rather have a CDF man­ager serving in another station and not Mr Malinga. At the end of it, the writings were on the Wall for Malinga: That Machakos would not be his next station.Mr Malinga's rejection was based on his hardnosed and lone buffalo stance in Mbooni CDF, where he has not been seeing eye to eye with the appointees of local MP Mutula Kilonzo. Malinga virtually was kicked out by Kilonzo after his stay in Mbooni became un­tenable. Mbooni CDF is yet to come to terms with claims of alleged mis­appro­priation of funds, fail­ure to issue bur­sa­ries as and being unable to account for over 2 million shillings that was missing in the CDF kitty. Mr. Kilundo said Mr. Malinga was re­jected a month ago fater his leter was received in Machaks during a meeting with their pa­tron Dr. Victor Munyaka and that de­cision has to stay. Area Dc Mr. Bernerd Kinyua urged and warned the protesters against dem­on­strating outside the re­quirements of the law. The law requires that police be notified prior to such a dem­on­stration. Cholera claims more lives in Mwala District Two people have died while 44 others have been ad­mitted to various health facilities following the out­break of cholera in Mwala district. The victims include a 27 year old woman from Kyeni village in Kibauni division and a form three student from Kibauni sec­ondary school in the same locality, according to district public health officer Ms Patricia Muthui. The DPHO said 3 out of the 44 cases are un­der­going treatment at Macha­kos general hospital while the mother of the dead stu­dent who hails from Kitile village in the division is admitted to Kenyatta national hospital. She said the outbreak was reported first week of De­cem­ber. `'The 41 other cases who include a 12-year old son of the dead woman were treated and discharged at various health facilities in the division in­cluding Katulani, Tulila and Nthwa Nguu dis­pen­sa­ries,'' she said at Mwala dis­trict hospital,citing diaorrhearing of blood and vomiting as their symptoms. She said laboratory tests from Macha­kos and Kenyatta hospitals where some of the cases are being treated confirmed that the vic­tims suffered from cholera which she attributed to drinking of con­tami­nated water from river Athi which flows through the villages and poor hygiene by the resi­dents. `'The victims were vomiting and diarhearing blood,'' Ms Muthui said citing the other villages hit by the outbreak as Ngungi, Ndutu, Kavingo, Voo A, Ikalaasa and Voo B villages where the 41 other cases have been reported. The official ordered the closure of Nthwa Nguu, Katulani, Ikalaasa and Tulila mar­ket centers which operated without public toi­lets and all public food outlets in the division to curb the spread of the dis­ease. `'This is in addition to the ban on hawking of foodstuffs including roasted maize which is common in the areas,'' she added citing other in­ter­vention measure as holding of series of public barazas in the affected areas to sensitize the residents on prevention measures. She said all dispensaries and health cen­ters in the affected areas had been supplied with enough cholera drugs and medical personnel mobilized to deal with the situation. `'We have also given pre­sumptive treatment to relatives of the victims who have been in contact with them to protect them from con­tracting the disease,'' Ms Muthui said adding the villagers had also been supplied with aqua tabs to treat drinking water. She advised the residents to observe basic hygiene including washing of hands when they visited toilet, drink boiled or treated water only, avoid eating un­cooked foodstuffs including fruits, clean fruits and vegetables with treated water and to re­port all cases of vomiting and diarrhoea to health personnel immediately.

Married catholic priests
state their case in Kitui

THE Roman Catholic Church priests who have reformed are still Catho­lics and they will remain Catholics. This was said by Bishop Dr. George Otieno from Kisumu in Kitui Dis­trict. He said that the Re­formed Catholic Church is there and it is serving God with His people. ™The difference is that we are Char­is­matic Catholic Church,∫ Otieno said. The said priests have broken out from the Roman Catholic Church in order to be marrying. Bishop Otieno was speaking at the Saint Stephen Char­is­matic Catholic Church ±Kakumuti, Ki­tui, when he ordained three deacons. The deacons are Francis Odende from Ugenya, Christopher G. Mutisya from Machakos and Leonard Oduor from Ugenya. The Bishop was assisted by Bishop Dr. George Jamba who is also from Kisumu. Otieno condemned bru­tality against women by their husbands. He asked Christians to stand firm and know Jesus whom they are serving. He said: ™The Reformed Catholic Church is the church. It has its beginning.∫ He said: ™My father was happier during my con­se­cration as a Re­formed Catholic Church bishop than during the ceremony of my ordination as a Roman Catholic Church priest. That means he was unhappy with the Roman Catholic Church.∫ On his part, Bishop Jamba said that they will continue praying for people and assisting them in various ways in line with how God has placed them (the clerics). He said that no person has plenty of wealth in this world. ™The life alone is the only wealth,∫ the prelate said. Father Cypriene Kinzi Musyimi who also addressed the gathering, said that he broke out from the Roman Catholic Church in 2004 and married his fiancée in October 2008. ™We have decided to marry because we need the change,∫ Father Musyimi said. He supported the use of condoms saying: ™We accommo­date the advice of the ex­perts.∫ Father Musyimi is a secondary school teacher and he will be teaching at the Kampala International University in Uganda from next year. Councillor Stephen K.Wambua who is the patron of the Saint Stephen Char­is­matic Catholic Church-Kakumuti, Kitui, also addressed the congregation. He lauded the clerics for being de­vel­opment conscious people. He said the priests are linked to water and agricultural development among the local community. He thanked them for having trained the community on agriculture and providing them with fertilizers. He thanked them also for having constructed some dykes in the area. The clerics are planning to construct an orphans centre in the area. Councillor Wambua announced that the foundation stone for the Saint Stephen Charismatic Catholic Church-Kakumuti, Kitui, will be laid in April next year. Thousands test HIV+ in Mwala District
An estimated 7,486 people in Mwala dis­trict are HIV positive according to the district public health officer Ms Patricia Muthui. `'This represents a prevalence of 3.8 per­cent of the district's total population of over 197,000 people,'' the official said quoting statistics from the district hos­pi­tal. She said in Muthetheni location alone, over 300 residents had been diagnosed with the virus and are currently enrolled for anti-retroviral therapy. `'The number of those infected could be higher because the 300 represents only those who volunteered for testing,'' she noted and encouraged more residents to establish their HIV/AIDS status by offering to be tested at the 29 VCT centers in the district. Local MP Mr. Daniel Muoki and his wife Monica were present at the function in which district officer one Mr. Joseph Sawe was the guest of honour. Ms Muthui said biting poverty linked to persistent drought and famine had fuelled prostitution leading to increased infections among women in the district. `'Overwhelming poverty is driving women including the married and very young girls into commercial sex thus fuelling the pan­demic,'' Ms Muthui la­mented. Mr. Muoki warned that HIV/AIDS pandemic remained a threat to the nation and urged stakeholders involved in fighting the spread of the disease not to relent their efforts while his wife encouraged more residents to establish their status by offering to be tested. Ms. Muthui said the girls had been tar­geting moneyed live­stock traders, matatu drivers and touts at major trading centers like Wamunyu, Masii, Makutano and Mwala ending up being infected. She said wide­spread chewing of miraa [cut] by local men was also fuelling the spread of the disease. `'Chewing miraa turns men sexually inactive forcing their spouses into extra love affairs which exposed to them to the risk of contracting the pandemic,'' the official said as the women applauded. She also railed at excessive con­sumption of illicit brews saying the behaviour was also contributing to more infections by encouraging drunkards to engage in irre­spon­sible sex. `'Cultural prac­tices like taking of the oath popu­larly known as `'Ngata'' which involves ex­changing of blood by the parties in­volved is another means through which some residents had unknowingly contracted the disease,'' the DPHO cautioned The crowd was treated to emotion when Ms Grace kyalo, Ms Njeri and Dominic Mweu narrated their early experiences after contracting the disease several years back. They said initially they underwent severe psychological trauma, dis­crimi­nation, broken marriages, stig­ma­ti­zation, and isolation by their own relatives and neighbours before they accepted their condition and went public about it and enrolled for the anti-retroviral therapy. `'We encourage others not to fear going for testing because that is what will prolong the lives of those who are in­fected and are unaware of the status,'' said Mr. Mweu and Ms Njeri. Editorial
Malili saga is the failure of strategic leadership

ELSEWHERE in this paper, there has been a deliberate effort to focus on the unfolding drama at Malili Ranching Company. This is deliberate because of the importance we attach to the very decision by the government to purchase some 5,000 acres of land in Ukambani. By choosing Malili Ranch, a golden opportunity has again struck in this region where one of the pillars of Kenya's de­vel­opment- an ICT City- is planned to be erected. This means that all the stretch of land between the city on Nairobi and Malili Ranch has all over a sudden been transformed to an extremely valuable land. It means that residents who own land or properties within the vast area will soon find themselves faced with lucrative options in terms of value for land and business oppor­tu­nities and those faced with the opportunity to get rich. Thus, the decision to settle for Malili is probably the best thing that has ever happened to Machakos are after it lost the opportunity to be Kenya's Capital City many years ago. However, it is saddening that rather than embrace the whole idea of the possibility of the establishment of an ICT City, some people have seen this as an oppor­tu­nity to author a shameful methodology to riches. These people are the very directors of Malili Ranch- some alive and others dead- who, together with oppor­tunists calling themselves Gateway Logistics, but who make up the who is who in Ukambani's body politic have queued up to compete- not in doing the right thing, but in stealing the funds that the gov­ernment aimed at paying ordinary citizens handsomely so that they can afford a make-over in their lives. The fact of the matter is that these directors placed them­selves in a position to make millions of cash from the poor farmers of Malili by buying them out cheaply and then selling off the land to the State at high rates that ought to have gone directly to the farmer. Information gathered shows that even the so called bro­kers are merely politicians from Ukambani who have coined the name so that they can fleece the very people that the pretend to love. That is why have been pressurizing that surviving Malili Directors pay-off the alleged commission, which, shamefully would trans­late to stealing from the very farmers as they would earn less for the land. What makes the whole alarming is how the gov­ernment has handled it from the beginning. Knowing very well hat Malili Ranching as good as dead, the Ministry of In­for­mation and Commu­ni­cations entered into an agreement with directors of the ranch to buy each acre for Sh 200,000, while they knew only too well that the ranch was not the owner of the expansive land. It could be argued that MALILI Ranch may have un­der­taken to round up the land owners and pay them at the behest of the Government. But at the time of the deal, the government knew very well that the directors had issued letters of Allotment to individuals and that they had lost any right to deliberate on privately owned land. What is worse is that the ministry moved Sh 400m to a law firm that would eventually write cheques to in­di­vidual land owners upon the surrender of the Letter of Allotment and a Green Card to the Gov­ernment. Unfortunately, all this was done in secrecy. In effect the government had organised what it is fabled at doing- Grand Corruption. Sources have it that the Sh 40m already paid as commissions was shared between the politicians and officials in gov­ernment, including a Cabinet Minister. Already, two of the directors are in court and we do not believe that their prosecution has anything to do with fighting crime. If anything, it is likely that the court case is a new war front by greedy leaders to steal even more from citizens. While we would want the courts to get to the root of the matter and punish all involved, we believe that crime in Malili is widespread and if the net is cast with honesty, objectivity and the quest to do what is right, the list of the suspects will be long enough to flush out civil ser­vants sitting pretty in big offices who are truly the authors of the Malili infamy. It is in this regard that we welcome the involvement of the office of the Prime Minster Mr Raila Odinga in the matter and urge that a new arrangement be put in place to pay off the remaining farmers. This arrangement must ensure that neither Malili directors nor the wily brokers of their appendages ever place their hands on taxpayers money. Indeed, an arrangement must be put in place so that remaining farmers get cheques directly from the government for the land they are selling. This is how it ought to be. Opinion
Revisiting the role of Kenya's religious leaders in law review While Kenyans and the world were waiting eagerly whether President Mwai Kibaki would stick to his prom­ise in giving Kenyans new con­sti­tution by June 30, 2004 dead­line, poli­ticians and religious leaders allied to his NAK faction, specifically from Mt Kenya region were opposed to it, opting instead for Wako and Kilifi draft. Politicians and religious leaders opposed to Bomas draft argued that it gave much power to Raila Odinga as pro­posed Prime Minister while reducing the powers of Kibaki as president. Wako, Kilifi and Naivasha drafts reduced Devo­lution of powers to a two-tier system of government: National and district gov­ernments as opposed to the Bomas draft which had provided for four levels of governments.Their argument was based on the fact that Bomas draft had denied Kibaki the powers to dis­miss the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Min­is­ter and Deputy Min­is­ters as offered in Kilifi draft.Kisumu Catho­lic Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth and then the Chairman of the Kenya Episcopal Conference, Bishop Cornelius Korir instead broke ranks with their fellow bishops who supported NAK and politicians from Mt Kenya region. Nairobi emeritus archbishop Ndingi Mwana `a Nzeki and the Kakamega Diocese Bishop Philip Sulumenti while opposing the Bomas draft de­scribed the Wako one as the best document which must be supported by all Kenyans.Bishop Okoth was quoted to have urged his flock to reject the Wako document by choosing the orange (No) during the November 21, 2005 ref­er­en­dum. Okoth made his stand known during the consecration of Sts Joachim and Anne- Nyalweny Catholic Sub-Parish of Ukwala Church in West Ugenya. Kenyans were left wondering how the same bishops who deliberated in their meeting in extraordinary Ple­nary at St. Thomas Aquinas Na­tional Seminary that only Wako bill be adopted broke ranks. Politically incorrect one would ague that since the majority of the bish­ops sale the idea of the Mt Kenya region it was possible that this could influence the interest of their political interest, thus dictating their stand as opposed to the two bish­ops from the Rift Valley and Lake re­gions whose interest were entirely Or­ange. If this is true then there is fear that when the bishops will issue there statement on the harmonized con­sti­tution they will go the PNU way that president (Kibaki) have the ex­ecutive power and Prime Minister (Raila) be dropped or be there but without power.Given that majority of the bishops come from Mt Kenya region, and that almost the white bishops have been there due to their sympathy and rec­ommen­dation, definitely when it comes to voting they must vote into their favour, this leaves only few bishops whose votes cannot count.But even though it could appear as if Okoth and Korir broke ranks with their fellow bish­ops because they supported Raila's Orange as opposed to Kibaki's bananas, the reason they gave for opposing Wako bill was because it was faulty and failed to categorically oppose abortion, capi­tal punishment and re­pro­ductive health issues dealing with contraceptives.Wako Bill was not clear on the issue of abortion. Clause 35(1), (2) stated: Every per­son has the right to life, except as may be pre­scribed in an Act of Parliament. Abortion is not per­mitted except as may be pro­vided for by an Act of Par­liament. Clause 61 states: ™Every person has the right to health, which includes the right to health care services, in­cluding reproductive health care.∫ Even though bishop Sulumenti was not allied to Mt Kenya region leaders those in the know argued that he did so because of his position and role in chairing the committee in March 2004 that came with rec­ommen­dation that there shall be the post of Prime Minster but with­out power.Given that Kakamega was pre­domi­nantly pro Raila is why bishop Sulumenti was booed by his faithful when he suggested to them that they should support the Wako draft since it give women equal sta­tus as men. Nyeri late archbishop Nicodemus Kirima instead was applauded when he told his faithful to support Kibaki by voting bananas. This was be­cause Nyeri was predominantly pro Kibaki.The breaking of rank among bish­ops did not only end with Wako bill but also sparked the majimboism debate and Raila's MoU with Muslims.Even though this was not the first time such MoU were signed, Car­di­nal John Njue led some other bishops in Rome to con­demn Raila on signing of the memorandum between him and some Muslim leaders.The same memorandum was signed by Presi­dent Kibaki who did so in the run-up to the 2002 General Election at Nyali Beach Hotel in the presence of late Mr Michael Wamalwa who became the Vice-President and Mr Kalonzo Musyoka who is now his Vice President.The MoU is meant to safeguard the interests of a section of the Ken­yan Muslim commu­nities who have un­der­gone atrocities over the last 44 years and still fear that if such MoU agreement were not signed the Muslims in Kenya would suffer a great deal.According car­di­nal Njue however, the reason why he was opposed to the MoU is because Muslims wanted to in­tro­duce Sharia law and make Is­lam the supreme religion in Kenya, alle­gations that the Mus­lims cat­egorically denied.In a statement signed by cardinal Njue issued at the Vatican on November 18, 2007, it read in parts: ™It was un­acceptable to use re­li­gion as a plat­form to ascend to power∫. It adds: ™No one should be allowed to turn it into a religious state. Prom­ises to give any faith-group special rights and the appli­cation of its particular religious laws for gov­er­nance are com­pletely con­trary to the Con­sti­tution of Kenya.∫However, like Okoth and Korir the vast majority of Ken­yans opted for Bomas draft because it reflected their views. They were opposed to current con­sti­tution be­cause it has been amended sev­eral times to suit the gov­ernment on power. Since the Con­sti­tution was drafted, there have been 30 amendments which have created anoma­lies in the document. To give the President full power to overrun all the government affairs, the first Amendment was made in 1964-1969 shortly Kenya became Republic. This Amendment es­tab­lished a republic with an ex­ecutive President, who also be­came Head of State, Head of Government and Commander in Chief.The fourth amendment was made in view of Mem­ber of Parliament who was sen­tenced to a prison sentence of six months or over to vacate his seat. It also required that an MP who failed to attend eight consecutive parliamentary meetings without per­mission of the Speaker should lose his seat. The 5th Amendment was made to en­sure that an MP who resigned form the party that had supported president Kenyatta at the time of his election at a time when that party was a parliamentary party, to vacate his seat at the expiration of the session.The 8th Amendment was made to re­move doubts on the interpretation and effect of Section 42A of the Constitution con­cerning the resignation of members under the Fifth Amendment Act by making it ret­ro­spective in operation.The 10th Amendment was made to alter the method of presidential election. It re­quired that in future the presi­dent would be directly elected by the national elec­torate at the time of a gen­eral election. People for Peace in Africa (PPA) Elderly Mwala citizens
start earning a stipend 600 elderly people in Mwala dis­trict have started benefiting from the cash transfer program under the ministry of gender, chil­dren and social de­vel­opment. The district social protection committee chaired by the district commissioner Ms Florence Amoit will next week embark on iden­ti­fying the 600 beneficiaries who must bear 65 years and above and confronted by over­whelming by poverty. `'Only the poor of the poorest will be considered,'' district commissioner Ms Flo­rence amoit who chairs the committee said in her office today adding Kibauni, Mwala, Ikalaasa, and Yathui lo­cations will be given priority during the selection ex­er­cise owing to high poverty index of 71.60, 66.66, 66.35 and 59.21 re­spec­tively. The District Gender and Social De­vel­opment Officer Mr. Jacob Nyaga said implementation of the social protection policy had started countrywide and will ini­tially cover 26, 4900 elderly persons in 44 selected districts before its rolled out coun­try­wide. He cited Busia, Turkana, Samburu, Makueni and Mwala as some of the poorest ranked dis­tricts where pi­loting of the pro­gram had been going on. `'Each beneficiary will be en­titled to SH 1,500 monthly from the gov­ernment, the official said adding the pro­gram was meant to cushion the elderly from vul­nerabil­ity of risks and shocks of live­lihood occasioned by total dep­ri­vation. `'Potential beneficiaries covered by other pension schemes will not be con­sid­ered,'' Mr. Nyaga said quoting criteria conditions im­posed by the ministry to curb du­pli­cation. He said the treasury had allo­cated SH 550 million in this year's bud­get to roll out the program coun­try­wide. At the moment however, payment to beneficiaries will be done after every two months owing to logistic problems. `'The cash will be lumped together and re­mitted through the District Older Persons Cash Transfer Committees as the ministry con­sid­ered the most convenient means of delivering the money in the near future. `' Mr. Nyaga said citing the district trea­suries, Posta-pay and safaricom's M-pesa ser­vices, and Post bank as some of the options being con­sid­ered. `'The 44 poverty-stricken dis­tricts where piloting was un­der­taken were picked through targeting cri­te­ria based on geo­graphical area, the Kenya in­te­grated bud­get survey data of 2005/2006 for dis­trict selection, regional bal­ancing and use of commu­nity poverty indicators,'' he ex­plained. For transparency and accountabil­ity, the local commu­nity will be given a chance to approve or disapprove the list of ben­efi­cia­ries identified by the district so­cial protection committee at public barazas to stem controversy, Mr. Nyaga fur­ther said. Implementation of the policy is set to stimu­late economic growth through in­creased demand for goods and ser­vices once the pro­gram became universal, the official said quoting the case of New Zealand , India , Botswana , Nepal , Namibia and South Af­rica which em­braced the idea much earlier. Kalonzo visits stinking morgue Vice president Kalonzo Musyoka had to endure a pungent smell of de­com­posing human bodies of his people to venture in to the Mwingi dis­trict hospital mor­tuary to see first hand the de­plorable state of the fa­cility. Mr. Musyoka had to pay an im­promptu visit to the facility following a public uproar over the sorry state of the morgue and besides the assaulting stench, he came face to face with rotting bodies. He took the bold action to visit the morgue following reports that resi­dents of Mwingi town and the outlying area were planning a demonstration to pro­test against his in­action over the sickening state of the morgue. So shocked was the VP after touring the facility in his Mwingi north con­stituency that he curtly told the assistant di­rector for medical services Dr. Simon Mueke who conducted him through the morgue; ™ Dr. Mueke, you have a job to do here.∫ Inside the mortuary the Mwingi dis­trict medical services officer Dr. Daisy Jerop Ruto showed Mr. Musyoka what used to be the cooling chambers whose systems broke down in which some embalmed bodies were pre­served. She explained that the assaulting stench emanated from 13 other de­com­posing unclaimed bodies placed outside the morgue chambers that had not been em­balmed and were awaiting court or­ders for them to be disposed off. Mr. Musyoka explained that he planned the emergency visit to the mortuary after he got word that his constituents were planning to hold a massing dem­on­stration over his failure to address the deplorable state of the fa­cility that caters for resi­dents of six districts. He said since the cooling system at the morgue broke down a couple of years ago the locals have had to dip deep into their pockets when a loved one died as they had to take their bodies to far off places like Matuu for pres­er­vation. When he was informed by Dr. Mueke that up to Sh.10 million was required to en­sure that Mwingi had good and modern mor­tuary the VP said that such an amount of money was not a big deal as the same would be readily availed. He said the first step the hospital man­agement should take is to ensure that the mortuary cooling systems were re­stored to ensure bodies stored there did not rot as funds were sought to put up a more modern facility at the hos­pi­tal. The VP noted that there was need for the medical services ministry to ex­plore possi­bilities of having mor­tu­aries and maternity wings in the new districts that were recently hived from the larger Mwingi district in or­der to ease con­gestion at the Mwingi mor­tuary. Dr. Mueke said once the unclaimed bodies were removed from the mor­tuary the nau­se­ating smell of de­com­posing bodies would be a thing of the past. He added that plans were in place to restore the morgues cooling system by installing new mortars. He added that besides restoring the cooling systems at the morgue, ultra-sound and modern maternity ward fa­cilities would be put up at the hos­pi­tal. Bomani DCC wrestles
with the fate of pastors DRAMA at Bomani AIC is unending. Bomani District Church Council has moved with speed to deal with simmering re­bellion by the Bomani Local Church Council amid rumours of a possible disso­lution. To test the waters, DCC Chairman Rev Duncan Kiamba summoned two sus­pended pastors- Rev Richard Muteto and Phylis Kilonzo and banned them from stepping into the church while their sus­pension stays. By banning them, Rev Kiamba and his ream were casting a long trap for what appeared as defiance by the sus­pended pastors to continue attending services at the church while they are suspended and possi­bly seek sympathy from the con­gre­gation. The seeming defiance, it is believed was being supported by the Local Church Coun­cil. Such support was manifested by the decision to invite Rev Muteto to offer prayers one Sunday a week after he was sus­pended. Had be one so, it would have shown that the Local Church Council was disregarding the sus­pension order. Investigations by the Anchor reveal that the LCC was not necessarily defiant but was nonetheless be­wil­dered by the de­cision to send the two pastors on com­pul­sory leave without explaining to them the reasons behind the decision. The LCC, being the immediate su­per­visors of the pastors was not eve consulted be­fore the decision was made, making them spectators in a very grave matter indeed. To date, there has not been a reason ad­vanced for the DCC move to remove the tow from the church. That administrative goof by the DCC has left the whole matter in a sea of con­jec­ture, with allegations of a love affair driving the gossip. Rev Kiamba told The Anchor that the DCC was yet to make a final decision n the two. Whatever the reason for their sus­pension, it must be said that the DCC will find itself boxed in over the mater. First, it will be utterly difficult, if not im­possible, to find any evidence of a love affair between the Rev Muteto and Pastress Kilonzo. Second, even if such an affair flour­ished, there is no one who is willing or credible enough to step forward and point an accusing finger at the two servants of God. In reality, and sadly so, the DCC may have to find a way of navigating around the muddle in such a way that they will retain honour in what they do, not just to Muteto and Kilonzo but in many other matters they handle. After all, Rev Muteto and Pastress Kilonzo have been going about their pastoral vocation outside the DCC.Service to God, it must be stated is much more than an appointment letter. It is a calling. Indeed Muteto conducted a very memmorable and colourful wedding in Masii where Nduku Munyao wedded Ndonye Ngumbi in a manifestation of that calling, not by man but by God Himself. Notwithstanding, it must be said that since their suspension, there has been relative solace at Bomani AIC, easing out tensions that had been generated by the rumour of flying affection and seeming inaction from the LCC. Besides, the drama should also be a stern waning to current and future pastors of the church that they must live a life beyond suspicion. They must select their words on and off the pulpit, the company they keep, the socializing they do, the gifts they accept or even the cars or anything else that they borrow. For the Muteto- Kilonzo ex­pe­rience shows that one can die merely due to idle talk. So what are the options available for the DCC? The fact that the absence of evi­dence over the allegations may bewilder the DCC, they must look for a way to get out of the matter without being embarrassed. The reality that quiet has resumed in Bomani may just be the only excuse for the DCC to originate a reshuffle within the DCC and send the pair to different churches to re­sume their functions there. No matter how this matter is handled, Bomani is a church that s in dire need for prayers, being a mega church and a cen­trifu­gal force for the AIC fraternity in this part of the world. Whenever Bomani sneezes, all other small churches choke at once. It may benefit the DCC to sit and develop a strategy to handle Bomani AIC to en­sure that it operates above trivia. This can only come about by a me­ticu­lous policy and process of iden­ti­fying a high calibre of all cadre of staff, elders, deacons and pastors for the church. The official insider account of how Sacco was looted Overseer exposes big scramble for cash, names companies that pocketed millions and demands action on Ngomo's team The following is an un-flattering speech made by Mr. EDRICK NGUNZI Chairman, of the Su­per­vi­sory Committee to Masaku Teachers Sacco delegates at a meeting where the press was de­lib­er­ately not invited. It is now fash­ionable for sacco leaders to ex­clude the press from their meetings `to let the Sacco die in peace', even when what they do is clearly a matter of public in­terest. It is a telling account of how the most promising business entity in Machakos was looted. There are names of those the sacco over­seers believe are culpable. Now The Anchor presents it all verbatim.
“Once again the Supervisory committee welcomes this pleasant occasion and fees privileged to present to the general membership through the delegates a report on the operations of the Sacco for the year 2007. This year 2007 will, in the Supervisory committee's view, go down as one which saw the Sacco almost collapse. The general decline in the Sacco's loaning performance forced most of our members to seek loans from commer­cial banks and other financial in­sti­tutions to cushion them­selves from the harsh and hostile economic hardships facing almost everybody in Kenya today. Other opted to withdraw their membership. Faced with the un­re­lenting demand for money, the Management under the then General Manager sought external funding but unfortunately much of the money ended up in the unintended purpose as I shall report elsewhere in my re­port. I' m therefore calling upon your patience so that I report com­pre­hen­sively on the following cru­cial areas of concern. 1.MEMBERSHIP The tough economic conditions that faced the society in the year 2007 saw the greatest decline in membership ever witnessed since the Sacco was started over 40 years ago. The mem­bership stood at over 11000 be­fore the society lost control, making it one of the giant teachers Saccos in the country but as I report to you now, we lost 2048 members through vol­un­tary withdrawals, retirement or natural attrition. This represents an 18.6% decline. There are signs of a light growth this year following renewed member con­fi­dence in the current man­agement committee but all efforts should be made to bring back the members who are currently being held hostage by banks. We are also at the same time appealing to you delegates to encourage the newly employed teachers across the Districts to register with the Society. Their enrolment with us will however to a greater extend be determined by our performance, now and in future. It is therefore a task we are placing on the management to reclaim and retain the society's lost glory. 2.LOANS/LOANING POLICY The most crucial and critical service a Sacco offers to its members is the pro­vision of loans. This is an area that the society completely failed in. The last loans were provided in the month of March last year and the rest of the year passed without loans. The loaning policy of first come first served was also grossly violated and loans were only available to a section of membership who were perceived to be loyal to the system. In some cases, free loans and advances were awarded to these members and some ended up receiving hundred of thousands of shillings. This basically means the 3 times a members' share contribution policy pegged to loaning was also omitted. As I report to you a group of politically correct individuals, mostly from central and Kangundo electoral areas, are in record to have received instant advances to a tune of a million shillings plus each. The amounts are irrecoverable by check-off but I'm pleased to report that the CMC has hired a lawyer to pursue the cases. Let's hope we'll see quick action to­wards the recovery. Fellow delegates, we should all be vigi­lant and watchful over the loaning procedures. Any violation should be reported immediately to make sure members are served equally. We have no sacred cows in the Society. 3. COMPUTERIZATION It is now exactly a decade since com­put­er­ization was first introduced in our society. The aim was to com­put­erize both Bosa and Fosa. We were promised then, that we would be able to obtain members loan details at the click of a button at the reception office come 1st March 1999. The dream has never been realized. I would however find it worthwhile to report that the collapse of the society emanated from this so called com­put­er­ization. Millions of shillings, in fact over 20m has up to now been used to do what could have cost approxi­mately 6 million then. The pro­cess, it is a pity, has not been com­pleted despite the huge ex­pen­di­ture except in the Fosa, where a system, full of all sorts of loopholes was installed, again exposing the so­ci­ety to fraud. Here our computer staff found easy prey and deprived the society of up to 50m. They have since been laid off and arraigned before court. Efforts to link Bosa and Fosa, it is un­der­stood, are underway, after the completion of an evaluation by a com­puter expert on the current sys­tem. We are advising the management to source for a better system, if after the evaluation the current one is found to lack the required controls. The computerization process should then either be completed or stopped altogether. 4.FOSA For a quite sometime, the supervisory committee has been carefully looking into the operations of the FOSA. We have been keenly studying the op­erations of the main office as well as those of the six branches held at Kibwezi, Matuu, Emali, Wote, Kangundo and Kikima office. The main office has been making a profit from its monthly activities but the branches, during the year under re­view recorded huge losses thus eating into the surplus netted at the head office. The losses were incurred due to hefty allowances provided for staff, and se­cu­rity and the Callkey line monthly fee. It is however, worth noting that al­though the current CMC has greatly slashed the expenditure on mobiles besides discontinuing the Callkey line the branches have continued to make no surplus expect Kibwezi that has re­corded a negligible surplus. The branches should be evaluated with a view of closing down those that are perceived to be a burden to the so­ci­ety. Remember we are in business and not out to please members. The same members eagerly await dividends at the end of every trading period and there­fore no loss making venture should be continued. 5.NEGATIVE ACCOUNTS History often repeats itself. In the books of history a scramble for the riches of Africa by European nations was wit­nessed in the 18th century. A similar situation was witnessed at our society when the then General Man­ager introduced manual withdrawals. Sacco staff, permanent and casuals as well as attachees made frantic attempts to sweet talk the Manager to allow them withdraw from empty accounts thus creating negatives. The teachers also discovered this easy way to riches and joined the scramble. Non teachers also got wind of this `gold mine' and rushed in for gold. Well connected committee members, those loyal to the systems also jumped into the band­wagon and like the rest pocketed what was allowed to them. At the end of the scramble, the society lost over 66M. The amounts are in record and efforts by the current committee to recover the looted cash are underway albeit slowly. No single coin should remain unpaid. We urge the CMC to deal with the looters with­out mercy. 6.THE PLAZA This housing project that was un­der­taken by the Sacco and a section of our members now houses our offices. The society contributed 25% while the members did the rest 75%. The Management of the Plaza for some­times remained with Sacco until members appointed an independent board to run its affairs. The Sacco has two members representing it at the board. It is therefore questionable why society's employees are working for the Plaza when the two are separate en­tities in all aspects. As a tenant to the In­vestment, the Sacco should plainly pay its landlord and the two should never share anything. Efforts to have the two divorced are not bearing fruit. We are therefore requesting for an or­der from delegates to have the two operate separately. THE 2006/2007 PROCUREMENT RE­PORT During the period under review, the Society witnessed yet another scramble but this time from suppliers. These, during a scrutiny into the then coveted payment vouchers are categorized into minor and major suppliers. An in-depth search also unearthed a yet third category that had its payment vouchers stacked not in a file but in a special envelop. This group was categorized as `special suppliers.' Let me briefly report the main suppliers in 2006 and 2007 separately. IN 2006 ± 2007 Name of Supplier Items/service supplied Amount 1.Travelwide Computer software 2 Scud distributors 3.Brookhaven 4.Kamploop Agencies 5.Hardsoft system 6.Mesco consultants 7.Talkcom mobile services 8.Callkey E.A Ltd. NOTE » In July 2006, Scud dis­tributors was contracted to supply cal­cu­lators worth 980,000/=. » On February 24th Kamploop Agencies was paid at once Kshs. 1.7M for supplying soft­ware on magnetic strip cards for Fosa. » In May 2006, Hardsoft was paid Kshs. 250,000/= for supplying office air conditioners. » In 2006, Mesco consultants was contracted to put up suggestion boxes at Kshs. 200,000/=. » Talkcom was during the year in question contracted to supply mobile phones for delegates to be repaid through check off system. On 23rd August 2006, Talkcom supplied mobile phones for staff valued at Kshs. 142,400. However no record of the beneficiaries could be traced meaning no recoveries have been or are being made. IN 2007 SUPPLIER AMOUNT 1. Computer castles 6,720,000/= 2. Travel Wide 5,824,983.50 3. Scud distributors 5,484,850/= 4. Jawchan 2,793,230/= 5. Kamploop agencies 2,375,000/= 6. Hardsoft 2,070,000/= 7. Callkey E.A. Ltd. 1,267,845/= 8. Mesco 953,000/= 9. Brookhaven 932,000/= 10. Chakim pride 607,500/= 11. Talkcom 250,000/= NOTE Other minor suppliers, namely: Chip Electrical, Asentric Consultants Ltd., Akamba fire protective, Shekima Tents, Synchrosoft Kenya, Uneek cleaning ser­vices, Katiba Ltd., to name just but a few were also in constant business with the society over the two year pe­riod under review. They drew millions of shillings from the teachers' organization. DIVIDENDS From the analysis above, it is now al­most evident that the top brass con­cerned itself with suppliers, where in most cases supplies were only done in paper without delivery of the goods thus translating to massive losses. In my own view very little or no surplus was realized. The audited books of accounts will tell. However, let the committee pay what was realized if any. THE FORMER EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The Sacco is ailing and moribund due the greed that was shown by Mr. Solomon Ngomo, former General Man­ager, Mr. Cosmas Mwololo, retired Chairman, Paul Ilii, former Treasurer, Mr. Nicholas Mutunga, former Hon. Secretary, and Mr. Livinac Muia, re­tired Vice Chairman. They, in collaboration with suppliers looted the society coffers dry. A lot has up to now been un­earthed and the CMC should ur­gently make arrangements to have them face the law. Let no stone remain unturned. CONCLUSION 1. The period under review was the most difficult one due to cash constraints and the su­per­vi­sory committee wishes to register profuse grati­tude to those of our mem­bers who firmly held on to their seats when the vessel was facing eminent collapse. 2. The supervisory wishes to thank the delegates for their continued support even during those trying moments. 3. The Ministry of Co-operatives shall not be forgotten for the advisory role they played to have the Sacco back on its feet. 4. Lastly to all our membership and to those who in one way or another had an input into finding solution to our prob­lems.∫ How Munuka team became Malili Bosses

LEST you forget, The Anchor has gone into the archives to discover how Malili Ranch landed into the hands of the directors who eventually sub divided it to share-holders in the face of opposition from the National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), propped a false story of a White Investor from South Africa who wanted to buy the plots. Soon, Malili Lawyer Eric Mutua tendered for the purchase of the land by the government and struck a deal for each acre to be bought at Sh 200,000. The Government made a down payment of Sh 400m to pay the farmers at that rate. However some of the directors, using in-formation not available to the shareholders begun buying the land at as little as Sh 40,000 per acre an then sold it at Sh 200,000. Treasure hunters in the name of Gate-way Logistics were paid Sh 40m for alleged conveyance and are demanding more millions which if paid will mean that land owners will lose millions to the brokers who are now fronted by powerful ODM-K politicians. They claim the money is to fund Mr Kalonzo Musyoka’s 2012 Campaigns. See how it all started.



REPUBLIC OF KENYA IN THE HIGH COURT OF KENYA AT MACHA­KOS CIVIL CASE NO: 98 OF 2003 MALILI RANCH LIMITED - PLAINTIFF VERSUS JOSIAH MUNUKA & 7 OTHERS- DEFENDANT RULING The applicant/plaintiff has moved this court under S3 and 63 of civil procedure Act, order 39 R 1,2,9 of civil procedure rules and en­abling provisions of the com­pany act Cap 486 seeking orders of injection to restrain the defendants, their servants or agents from in­ter­fering with affairs and or management of the plaintiff pending hearing and de­ter­mi­nation of the suit, that the defendants or servants be re­strained from interfering with or dealing in any way with the assets of the plaintiff pending hearing and determination of the suit, that defendant be re­strained from trespassing on the property of the plaintiff pending hearing and de­ter­mi­nation of the suit, that the OCPD Makueni District enforce the orders sought and for costs of the appli­cation. The grounds upon which the appli­cation is based are on the face of the appli­cation which are that the purported election of defendants as directors of the plaintiff at an irregularly con­vened meeting of 19.7.2003 was in contravention of a court order and hence null and void and that the defendant held a pur­ported general meeting on 18.10.2003 where they re­solved to take over assets of supported by the affidavits of Philip Ndibo filed on 22.10.2003 and another sworn by Dominic Muathe Ndambuki who is the farm man­ager at Rally Ranch which is owned by the plaintiff. On the other hand Philip Ndibo claims to be the chairman and one of the directors of the plaintiff company. The application was opposed and a re­plying affidavit was filled by Josiah Munuka the 1st defendant herein and also claims to be the chairman and one of the directors of the plaintiff's com­pany. Both parties also filed annex­ure to the affi­da­vits which the court has considered along with sub­missions by counsel and affidavits filed. The background of this case is that the present defendants purport to be the bona fide directors of the plaintiff com­pany having been elected in a meeting of 19.7.2003 (JMII) as per minutes of that day annexed to Josiah's affidavit. This suit is filed by directors who were purportedly ousted by this purportedly in office. Those ousted still claim to be the bone fide di­rectors of the plaintiff's company and have brought this suit on behalf of the company. The prayers sought are eq­ui­table rem­edies and the court has to consider the court has to consider the conditions required to be fulfilled by the applicants before or­ders can be granted i.e. do they have a prima facie case with chances of success and weather they could suffer irreparable loss if orders of injunction are not granted or they can be com­pen­sated by way of damages. It is the plaintiff's contention that the meeting of 19.6.2003 was illegal as it was held in disobedience of court order. The order was annexed as PMI-to Ndibos affi­da­vit. In that order dated 17.7.2003 it is clear that though 3 people had been sued the meeting of 19.7.2003 was spe­cifically stopped as per par 4 of the said order. It is not true as alleged by de­fen­dants that it was only directed at the three defendants sued. The question is whether the de­fen­dants were ever served with this order of the court. The applicant refers to annex­ure JM 12 minutes of 19.7.2003 where it was men­tioned that former chairman tried to scuttle the meeting by publishing a notice in the media but the meeting was called off following a court injunction. This does not tell the court much. The applicants should have availed evidence on the ser­vice of the order to the defendants or how the defendants knew of the order. It seems this order stopping the meeting of 19.6.2003 was never served on de­fen­dants. The statement made in the minutes may bea result of rumours. We have no idea what the source was. The other issue raised is whether the elections of the directors was properly done as per provision of companies Act.Josiah Munuka !st de­fen­dant in his replying affidavit states that at the meeting of 20.6.2003 members resolved to re­move all formers directors and req­ui­si­tioned for an extraordinary general meeting which was then sched­uled for 19.7.2003.As properly submitted by coun­sel for plaintiff, there is no evi­dence that the procedure in con­vening of an ex­traor­di­nary general meeting was ever followed as provided in s. 132 of the com­pa­nies Act .There is no evidence of a requisition signed by the members stating objects of the meeting and de­pos­ited at registered office of the com­pany. The act also provides that these requisition must hold 1 out of 10 of share capital (S 132 companies Act) or 100 members and holding not less than 51% of the au­tho­rized shares of the company shall be the quorum ™880 people attended and as per the Annual return for the com­pany as of 5. 7.2003 the issued share capital was 17,500/-ordinary shares. According to the applicants counsel they fell short by 8500 shares from his cal­cu­lation of the shareholding of those who attended. If that be the case there was no quorum. For one to be elected as director he must have a minimum shareholding of 25 shares.The applicants annexed a letter from the company secretary of the plain­tiffs dated 31.7.2003 which shows that only Sam Muumbi holds 25 shares.John Munuka holds 10 shares, David Musau 5 shares, James Munguti 5 shares, John Mbai 5 shares, Julius Kilonzo 10 shares, Leonard Kyama 5 shares and David Kyalo 5 shares. The defendants are bound by their own Articles of Asso­ciation. They cannot de­part from them to suit a particular situation. The upshots of this is that none of the de­fen­dants is fit to be a director except 3rd defendant Sam Muumbi.I believe there is a good reason why there was such pro­vision in the Articles ,because the one with more shares has more at stake and is likely to take better care of the com­pany property. On 7.8.2003 the senior Assis­tant Register of companies issues to Waweru Advocate a letter showing the directors to the di­rectors to the Philip Ndibo and his group(pmj) whereas the defendants annexed (JM 15) a letter dated 27.10.2003 showing the directors as the defendants. The registrar did not take part in the elections or knew that goings on at the company. All he gave is a record kept with him. I believe it matters how the names got to be at the registry as di­rectors and from what I have been considering above it is apparent that the procedures were flawed. The 1st defendant in his affidavit at par 7c deposes that at the meeting of 20.6.2003 members exclusively agreed to remove the directors and req­ui­si­tioned for an ex­traor­di­nary general meeting and that the former chairman agreed to convene one on 19.7.2003.At Para 7(f) of same affi­da­vit he continues to say the meeting was ad­journed to 21.6.2003.At their annex­ure JM15 ,the minutes of the meeting of 21.6.2003,it is indicated that the meeting ended in disarray as the meeting had been taken over by a mob. The minutes are hardly one page. In the same breadth the 1st defendants has filed annexure JM 9 being resolutions made on the same 21.6.2003.When can these reso­lutions have been made when the meeting ended in disarray as per annex­ure JM 15.And if the same meeting ended in disarray could the chairman then have been asked to convene a special annual general meeting for 19.7.2003 and he agreed to go ahead. It seems there is some­thing that the de­fen­dants have just not revealed to the court and from the foregoing even though the defendants are said to have taken over the com­pany it seems there have been irregularities in the procedure for take over and the capacity of the defendants directors is also in question. I do find that the plaintiff have made out a prima facie case with good chances of success. The company stands to suffer irreparable loss if the law gov­erning the running of com­pa­nies is no adhere to. I hereby grant an in­junction restraining the defendants from interfering with affairs and man­agement of the plaintiff`s company, interfering or dealing with assets of the company and trespassing onto he prop­erty of the plaintiff pending hearing and de­ter­mi­nation of suit. OCPD Makueni to oversee enforcement of the order. To avoid any further confusion at the con­fusion at the com­pany the members can take the necessary steps to call for special general meeting as per the law provided. Costs to be in the cause. Dated,read and delivered at machakos thisººººººººººººººº..day of ºººººººººººººº.2004. R.V.WENDOH JUDGE Proposal to harmonise
Kenya's mix of devolved funds
A new framework is being proposed to handle Kenya©s range of devolved funding. The proposal is a key output of a study a study that was jointly un­der­taken by nine or­ga­ni­zations during the last quarter of 2009. Eight of the or­ga­ni­zations form the Social Public Accountability Network (SPAN) while the ninth one is the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC). The purpose study is to contribute to ways in which the challenges, es­pe­cially the issue of duplication, for effective decentralization in Kenya can be addressed. The study proposes harmonized de­cen­trali­zation framework with op­era­tional guidelines amid the devo­lution debate out of the har­mo­nized draft constitution. The proposed framework seeks to es­tab­lish effective and har­mo­nious re­lations of co­or­di­nation and co­op­eration between diverse funds. It borrows heavily from the best prac­tices of decentralized de­vel­opment and the spirit of the ongoing reforms. The frame­work shall focus on im­proving the way things are done by building on the positive de­vel­opment ini­tiatives and re­ducing the negatives, with­out con­tra­dicting the es­tab­lished laws and struc­tures under the on­going re­forms/constitution making. From the study, all the re­spon­dents agreed to the need for harmonization.They also pro­vided a checklist of char­ac­ter­is­tics de­scribing their most pre­ferred framework.Based on this, the proposed frame­work shall be established within the three ad­min­is­trative levels; national, district and local level as follows. National Level: Following the various initiatives at the national level in which de­vel­opment part­ners have pre­viously agreed on Kenya Joint Assistance Strategy (KJAS) aimed at pooling to­gether their re­sources. The min­is­try of fi­nance in addition to collecting revenue, it mobilizes funds from de­vel­opment part­ners on behalf of the people of Kenya. Most of the people in­ter­viewed felt that the existing funds are being managed from so many min­is­tries. They thus suggested the need to bring them under one um­brella ministry; which is min­is­try of planning, national de­vel­opment and vision 2030. District Level According to Dis­trict focus for ru­ral development strat­egy, the dis­trict is con­sid­ered the center of development. The strategy which was established in July 1983 involves a bottom-up approach to planning where the districts have au­tonomy in setting priorities. However, this frame­work has over the years faced imple­men­tation challenges necessitating its revision to make it responsive to the changing needs of the people and emerging policy initiatives. As a result the proposed frame­work is guided by these premises. It thus pro­poses: Establishment of a basket fund called Dis­trict De­vel­opment Fund (DDF). The new bas­ket fund approach could lead to a more balanced allo­cation of funds and co­or­di­nation of development pro­grams. Currently there are many ini­tiatives at the local level either supporting the local au­thorities or dealing directly with commu­nities that are financed by de­vel­opment partners of NGOs. Under the proposed arrangement, the de­vel­opment partners can now channel funds through the basket fund. The District De­vel­opment Fund shall be used to fund three comple­men­tary development plans under different arrangement at the dis­trict level. These in­clude: Con­stituency De­vel­opment Plan (CDP) Local Au­thority Service Delivery Action Plans (LASDAP) and General Plans. All dis­tricts shall be ex­pected to come up with participatory strategic de­vel­opment plans from which CDP, LASDAP and gen­eral plans shall be based. The LASDAP shall be funded from a proper mix of local rev­enue resources in­ter­gov­ern­men­tal fiscal trans­fers via DDF to allow a cer­tain level of au­tonomy. The General fund shall take care of projects/ plans that often fail to be pri­ori­tized by commu­nities/ politicians but are essen­tial to district de­vel­opment. These include: en­vi­ron­men­tal con­ser­vation, HIV/AIDS prevention, gov­er­nance etc. To effectively manage and track imple­men­tation of the programmes/projects at the local au­thority, con­stituency levels and gen­eral de­vel­opment, development committees shall be established devoid of political influence. Oversight of the imple­men­tation of the district strategic plan and fund allo­cations shall be pro­vided by the District De­vel­opment Committee (or Authority). The office of DDO shall need to be em­pow­ered to co­or­di­nate de­vel­opment. In addition, district monitoring and evaluation committee shall be strength­ened and in­te­grated within the NIMES. Local/Community Level: Financing of development at the local level shall be aligned with and commen­su­rate with functions. This will require a basic legal and policy frame­work which will clearly stipulate the division o roles and responsibilities between the different funds. First, the DDC shall co­or­di­nate the allocation of funds to different development pro­grams. Sec­ondly, the rule of finance follow function shall apply with funds for spe­cific projects disbursed through functional co­or­di­nating teams, i.e. all projects shall be overseen by a sector specific Project Management Committee (PMC) chaired by the district de­part­men­tal head/rep­re­sen­tative. Other members of the PMC shall include community representatives and fund representatives. This shall en­sure there is harmony, cooperation and own­erships among the key stakeholders thus controlling duplication. Mbooni fails to allocate 2009 bursaries Residents of Mbooni Constituency want the local CDF committee explain why the Sh.2m kitty set aside for bursaries since January this year is yet released. The residents, mostly college and uni­ver­sity students who had applied for the cash said they had not received any money so far. The students and their parents were in­con­ve­nienced by the failure to release the money after some completed their studies this year with fees arrears that was to be cleared by the bursary kit. `'We want the area MP Mutula Kilonzo to intervene and explain why this happened.Is it a case of inefficiency on the party of CDF or is is a plot to steal the cash'' asked the prospective ben­efi­cia­ries. They also want the CDF committee thor­oughly investigated and overhauled to pave way for an efficient one that will not in future cause such inconvenience to us'' they added. But contacted the CDF chairman Cllr Nzeki Mutulili, admitted the delay to release the money arguing that it had been caused by the failure by te CDF manager to co-operate with his committee. `'Yes I admit the students' complaints are true but the blame goes to the CDF man­ager who has been a liability to us whenever we ask him to sign checks to release such monies to the ben­efi­cia­ries'' he added. Mr Mutulili however, said the money was in safe custody and would be disbursed soon after their differences with the man­ager are over. But contacted, the outgoing Mbooni CDF manager, Mr George Malinga, dismissed the chairman's claims saying he had been put in an awkward situation by the committee that insisted he should pro­cess the release the money without any min­utes. `'The chairman and the committee has been pushing me around to release the money out of procedure and at my own risk'' he said . Mr Malinga argued that the committee wanted him to take shortcuts through which he releases the money without any docu­men­tation after which he would be held responsible for its accounting. He said existing bad blood between him and the committee developed when its members wanted extra sitting allowances that he could not sanction. Mr Malinga who is in the process of being transferred out of Mbooni to Machakos (see separate story) due to the grudge said the money was safe in the CDF accounts. Malinga's exit from Mbooni is welcome re­lief to residents and is certainly wel­come for the Mutulili team. For Mutulili, he sees a wonderful oppor­tu­nity to operate without the re­cal­ci­trant presence of Malinga, whom he viewed as a roadblock to swift fi­nan­cial transactions. Malinga has truly rejected open efforts to siphon cash from the kitty, not nec­essarily because he is a clean man, but because he wanted Mutulili to rec­og­nize his office. Until his departure, Malinga was seen as the last man standing in the way of abuse of funds. The better option for Mutula Kilonzo is now to rout Mutulili and his reti­nue of greedy councillors who hover around the CDF kitty the way hyenas hover around a carcass. For it can never be truly said that CDF in Mbooni is being run in the best way possible. The Mutulili-Malinga gang must first account for who allocated the con­struction of the Mau Drift that both of them deny responsibility over even as the taxpayers money is channelled to be paid to the contractor who has papers signed by bonafide CDF leaders. CDF Mbooni has been in turmoil since the gang connived to remove former chairman Peter Mwanthi in the hope that they could pilfer funds at will. Observers are wondering what exactly Mr Kilonzo is waiting for before taking action because a failed CDF committee will im­pact negatively on him first before hitting anyone else. `The more Mutula ignores the war within his CDF, the more the noose tightens on his neck'said Alf Mutie, a civic educator in Kikima Market. How Malili Directors exploited farmers' ignorance
Questions linger as to why Government paid cash to Malili when they knew the ranch owned no land SCORES of Malili farmers are yet to be paid for their land as gov­ernment plans to move into the area next year. Worse still, they have had no commu­ni­cation about the sale and all they hear is the noise generated through the media as brokers seek to be paid even before the owners get their dues. What complicates the deal is the decision by Information and Commu­ni­cations PS Bitange Ndemo to enter into a deal with Malili Ranch directors about land that did not belong to the ranch since it had been allocated to shareholders. Investigators in the Malili saga are trying to understand how the gov­ernment even signed an agreement with Malili Ranch and transferred Sh 400m, even when it was known that Malili died long ago. According to the deal, farmers were to be paid Sh 200,000 per acre. What the directors did was to manipulate the loophole created by the government and commence insider trading where poor farmers were bought out for as little as Sh 50,000 per acre, only for the directors to sale the land at Sh 200,000 per acre, making staggering profits in the pro­cess. This insider trading is the business that the late Josiah Munuka, Peter Kanyi and J Kilonzo carried out since the first pay out with some of them amassing as many as 70 parcels of land bought for a song and then disposed off to the gov­ernment at Sh 200,000. Those who know the deals say that once ODM-K politicians got wind of the lucrative, they lined up behind the Gateway Lo­gis­tics Ltd to enter the gravy train. It is instructive to note that Munuka and Kanyi were bosom friends of ODM-K Big wigs including its Top Gun- Kalonzo Musyoka. The current stand-off has seen the entry of Water and Irrigation Minister Kaluki Ngilu into the fray to fight off any attempt by the hyenas to yank away Sh 50,000 per acre from the poor farmers. With her entry, Prime Minister Raila Odinga ordered the closure of accounts holding money trans­ferred from the government to pay the farmers. Now an assistant minister for agriculture Mr Gideon Ndambuki wants farmers at the Malili paid promptly and politics kept out of the affair. Mr Ndambuki who is also the Kaiti MP said some of the farmers who are members of the com­pany had not receieved their land dues owing to the es­ca­lating politics taking centre stage at the company. Mr Ndambuki said the issue of land is a matter of life and death and should be cautiously dealt with. Saying eighty percent of the company's farmers come from his constituency, the minister said some of the farmers still settling at the sale negotiated land to build an ICT centre were being told to vacate the land with­out before payments are done. The MP talked to the press at his rural Mukuyuni home where he received the farmers to present their grievances. He said the earlier agreed price of Sh200,000 per acre should be honoured and any other deal to that effect be rejected. The farmers told the MP that some of them had already surren­dered each acre for as little as sh40,000 out of ignorance. `'At the begining we rushed to sell our land to high ranking offi­cials at throw away prices only to realise later the government's big offer of Sh200,000 per acre'' said the farmers. They demanded that each of their acre sold at less than the agreed Sh 200,000 be paid at the right price. If this is pur­sued, the stage will be set to deal with local im­pu­nity among local leaders. This would also mean that Geteway Logistics, who pock­eted Sh 40m in illegal commissions would also face the music. `'We are blaming the man­agement for failing to in­form us of the price deal of the gov­ernment that was to pur­chase 5000 acres of land at Sh.1b'' they added. Assuring the farmers that he will leave no stone unturned until their right at the farm sale is achieved, Mr Ndambuki told those dragging politics at the private farm to keep off and let the members handle their land affair independently. The farmers vowed not to va­cate the land which they claimed to have developed until proper payment was done. The matter has since landed two directors of the company in a Nairobi court charged with fraud. Does Kalonzo have a stake in the
demand for millions from Malili? By Paul Kanyange and Martin Masai Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka took a brave step to distance himself from a gang of brokers demanding money that is said to be intended to fund his 2012 campaigns. Though the VP had come to Machakos to raise funds for AIC Mumbuni, he made plans to speak at a public rally and `clarify' that he had no link to a shadowy company- Gate­way Logistics- that has already been paid Sh 40 million in kickbacks from the sale of land in Malili Ranch, claiming that it had facilitated the sale. Kalonzo's public stance over being linked to the Malili fiasco surprised many who did not know that those de­manding the payment of a total of Sh.250m are saying that the cash is destined to the Kalonzo campaigns. These claims first came from a surprise source: Peter Mutua Kanyi, an old friend of the Vice President. He said was summoned by Kangundo MP Johnson Muthama to his Machakos Home three times. He claims Muthama told him that he, as Chairman of Malili, must pay the brokers to balance of the fee and avoid standing on the way of the VP's fund-raising efforts. Kanyi says he understood Muthama's demands to mean that farmers would have to earn less from the sales. It would also translate to mean that what Malili had signed to pay the farmer would not be attained, so he decided to reject the Muthama demand. It was after he rejected the Muthama demands that Malili published a notice in the press saying that all farmers would be paid Sh 200,000 per acre and not Sh 150, 000 that Gateway was insisting on so that they can be paid Sh 50,000 per acre. It was soon after wards that he was summoned to CID head­quar­ters and charged with stealing cash from Malili Ranch. Kanyi alleges that even as he was in custody, Muthama and CID officers kept on insisting that he signs a new agreement with Gateway so that he can be let off the hook. Mr Muthama told The Anchor that all he wanted was to deal with theft of public funds at Malili. He concedes that he is the one who triggered the action against Mr Kanyi by reporting the Malili fiasco to CID Director Mr Gatiba. He denies that he is a front for Gateway Logistics or that he is a director of the company. However sources say that Gateway is a network that has the backing of some ODM-K Mps in Ukambani on the one hand and some top civil servants on the other. It is this outfit that speculators, wheelers and dealers and some MPs identified- with a very apt name- gateway as the gateway to quick riches and in effect defraud ordinary villagers of their old investments. Gateway's ruthless demand is premised on an unsigned draft agreement that The Anchor has seen . The agreement is crafted to mean that Gateway would be paid a commission of the amount over and above Sh 150,000 per acre. This commission would be due whether the buyer of the land would have been introduced by Gateway. Indeed it is clause 3 of the contract Gateway wanted signed that shows that the outfit was out to steal through unfair agreement. In fact, they wanted to bind Malili to pay them commission after selling the land to any purchaser, even those introduced by other agents. Interestingly, Malili is said to have tendered for the land to the Ministry of In­for­mation, so Gateway did not have a role other than placing themselves at the gate to plunder In another contract on one sheet of paper that has two unendorsed cancellations, it is indicated that Gateway would be paid Sh 21,000 per acre as commission. This agreement is dated Feb 3,2009 and is allegedly signed by Mr Munuka and Mr Kilonzo. Mr Kilonzo however disowned the alleged signature. It is on the basis of this agreement that Sh 40m was paid to Gateway. It remains unexplained why Gateway wanted Mr Kanyi to sign another agreement if at all they had another binding agreement with Malili that Munuka had signed. The VP said it was absurd that middle men were involved in the deal and were demanding large amounts of money in the Sh 1 billion land deal where the government has already paid out Sh 400 million. ™Some people are trying to link me to the sale of the land but I had nothing to do with it and God is my witness∫ he said. Kalonzo said unlike other leaders, he had declared his wealth publicly ahead of the last general elections and had never been involved in ques­tionable deals in his lifetime. Whether anyone will believe the VP on this statement is another matter altogether as it is widely believed that it is his henchmen who are marauding the terrain seeking that Gateway is paid the illegal commissions, a development that would impact negatively on farmers, most of whom voted for Kalonzo in 2007 General Election. As we went to press, reports emerged that Mr Kanyi and Mr Kilonzo had struck a deal with their tormentors to vacate their seats as Chairman and Sec­re­tary. It is understood that another director, David Ndolo Ngilai had taken over as chairman. Other Directors of Malili are Leonard Kitua, James Munguti and Julius Nyuko. Kanyi and Kilonzo remain as directors. Muthama said a brokerage firm had already been paid Sh 40 million by Malili company and were now demanding Sh 70 million from the Sh 400 million the government released a few months ago. ™ As a member of Malili, number 2412, I will never rest until those who have stolen from us are brought to book∫ Muthama who is also deputy government whip in parliament told the crowd in Machakos town. Musyoka said plans were underway to revitalize the party in readiness of forming coa­litions with others ahead of the next general elections and urged party members to remain united for the good course. Make use of KEFRI, director tells residents
By Boniface Mulu
THE Kenya Forestry Re­search In­sti­tute (KEFRI) Kitui Regional Research Centre director, Dr. James Kamiri is encouraging Ki­tui farmers to take advantage of the centre in Kitui. He said improvement of farming is a collective re­spon­si­bility and the notion that arid areas are not suitable for agriculture must be dis­carded. He said that the al­ready existing farming tech­nologies can be given to farmers to equip them with the skills. Kamiri said ™ 84 percent of Kenya is dry land. There is need to look for markets for farmers. Most farmers lack information and there is need to help them to be more proactive,∫ . He was speaking as he officially closed a six-day training on production, pro­cessing and marketing of dry land wood and non wood re­sources for agricultural, live­stock and forestry officials held at the KEFRI-Kitui Regional Research Centre. The participants had been drawn from all the eight provinces of Kenya and the workshop had been jointly organized by the KEFRI and the National Ag­ri­cul­tural and Livestock Ex­tension Programme (NALEP). Kamiri asked the trainees to im­part the knowl­edge they ac­quired to other people. ™Trans­form what you have learned in the class to reality. Use your skills to remove farmers from higher levels of pov­erty,∫ the forester told the workshop participants. He said KEFRI needs to work with other people who have formed various tech­nologies in the region (Kitui). He presented the trained with certificates. The facilitators at the workshop were Bernard K.Kigwa, Meshack Mugo and Robinson Ng'ethe. The topics covered included water har­vesting, Aloe vera, Melia volkensii, in­dig­enous fruits and tapping and harvesting of gums and resins. Elsewhere, CHIEFS in Mutitu Dis­trict have been instructed to ensure that every homestead in the district has a pit-latrine for health reasons. Mutito District Commissioner, Mr. James Kamau, warned that the people who have no latrines there will be pros­ecuted. The DC, who was reacting over outbreak of cholera and dysentery among other dirt-borne diseases, told the local people to maintain general hygiene. He advised them to thoroughly wash their hands before and after eating and to drink boiled water. The DC declared a total war on rapists and defilers in the district warning that the culprits will be dealt with accordingly. He warned parents against being com­pro­mised by defilers of their daughters. Kamau decried the rampant consumption of illicit brews and bhang in the area,which he warned will not be tolerated. The administrator said that the local children should get edu­cation for the benefits of the area. ™They are the ones to bring development in the future to the area,∫ Kamau said. The DC announced that the dis­trict will have a total of 42 departmental heads starting from next month, adding that the ten departmental heads who have already reported for duty in the newly created district have some offices. The new district has been carved from the larger Kitui District. The DC announced that the gov­ernment had managed to dras­tically reduce livestock rustling in the area. The Kitui County Council chairman, Councillor Nzyoni Mang'uye, addressed the gathering besides representing the local Member of Parliament Julius Kiema Kilonzo. Other speakers at the function included the acting District Officer 1, Mr. Walter Katononi, the OCS Chief Inspector Joshua Kiptoo and the District Public Health Officer Cosmas Kinyumu. A Historical Perspective:

How The Anchor reported in 2008

By Anchor Reporter
EFFECTS of political ex­pe­diency and myopic leadership are now creeping into Ukambani as resi­dents face conflicts with wildlife in worrying pro­portions. Only three years ago, the clamour by shareholders for sub-division of the vast ranches- Aimi ma Kilungu , Kiu and Malili ranches- to turn them to farm­lands reached its peak as environmental and wildlife con­ser­va­tionists opposing the move. However, political ex­pe­dience outdid genuine environmental and wildlife concerns as local leaders fronted by then Kilome MP Mutinda Mutiso pushed the Na­tional En­vi­ronment Man­agement Au­thority (NEMA) to give a nod to the plan even when the writings were on the wall. Earlier, the authority had re­jected the proposal to sub-di­vide the ranches noting that the ranch man­agement had not submitted an Environmental Im­pact Assessment Report de­tailing what effects the sub-division would cause on en­vi­ronment. The conservationists had ar­gued that turning the ranches into farm­land would cause de­ser­ti­fi­cation and block the wildlife migration corridor from Tsavo and Amboseli parks to parts of Uka­m­bani, Rift Valley and Nairobi National Park. They also argued that the land was most suited for ranching or wildlife conservation and turning it into agricultural use would have far reaching en­vi­ron­men­tal effects like drought, de­for­es­tation, soil erosion among others. Speaking during the burial of a popular Makueni Coun­cillor David Musau at the height of the clamour, the then min­is­ter for En­vi­ronment and now Vice Presi­dent Kalonzo Musyoka, unashamedly said he would pre­vail on NEMA to allow the con­version of the ranches into farmlands.Musau, alias Mashambani was a right hand man to Kalonzo and was at the fore­front in the campaign to share out the land to mem­bers. In spite of the con­ser­va­tionists' spirited contest of the de­cision to convert the land to farms that saw the ranch subdivided into 10 acre plots followed by a massive human settlement, po­litical con­sid­er­ations held sway. The shareholders frustrated with continuous loss making by the ranches under various man­agement teams, had also pushed for sub-di­vision to enable them make use of the land in other ways or sell it. Later, a South African com­pany was reported to have been in­ter­ested in buying the ranches at very attractive prices a move that gave thrust the sub-division pressure. Only about four years later, what the environmentalists and wild­life conservationists warned against has come to pass with increased human-wildlife conflicts in­creasing year by year. What used to be a lush natural forest range land is now a deci­mated arid area, dotted with small farms that may not make economic sense. There is no evi­dence of the South African Investor spoken about to lure shareholders to agree to the di­rectors' machi­nations. Even as at now, key directors of the farm still sell land on daily basis, arising from fraudu­lent allo­cations that followed the sub-divisions and the whole area is certainly Ukambani's Mau Forest. The then Machakos District War­den Mr. Justus Manza warned of an in­crement of human-wildlife con­flict in parts of Machakos, Makueni and Nzaui district following an influx of wild­life from neighbouring game parks in search of water. Mr Manza said that in recent weeks wildlife movement from Tsavo and Amboseli and parts of Kajiado dis­trict into parts of Makueni, Macha­kos and Nzaui have been wit­nessed es­pe­cially in Athi River Area, Lukenya and Kilome areas. He attributed the movement to water shortage resulting from heavy drought in the re­gion forcing the wildlife to wander in search of wa­ter in their tra­di­tional grazing areas and water points that have now been occupied by human settlement. He said villages near Kiu sec­ondary school killed a buffalo and sold the meat be­fore Kenya Wildlife Service staff recovered the head. The war­den who is in charge of the larger Machakos and Makueni districts said that several people have been in­jured by wildlife but they have kept it secret for unknown reasons. Malili's rich history of
rows turns to an ICT City
Ranch is between Salama trading centre(near Kiima Kiu) along mombasa High­way and the Konza bend along the Nairobi Mombasa Trunk road . As you approach salama Market,there is an inverted `V' shaped hill,that is Malili hill which adjoins Kiima Kiul. A brand new shopping cen­ter which will be the di­vi­sional head quarters for new malili division is coming up in the area. About 70km from Nairobi along Msa high­way. This will soon be sub­merged by what is being called Malili Tenchnopolis, the fabled ICT City which is a hall mark of Kenya's Vision 2030, de­signed to make Kenya a regional hub in ICT. The Ranch was owned by Whiteman- known as Major Joyce who used the place for ranching purposes, vir­tually pro­ducing the best beef in the region. It was then relinquished to Af­ri­cans who bought it as a co­op­erative society, before some crafty officials reg­is­tered it under the Com­pa­nies Act. In the past 5 years the land has been subdivided to share­holders according to the number of shares one held and ballots have been done. This took place amid acrimony and opposition from En­vi­ron­men­talists and the gov­ernment as tech­nical in­for­mation showed that the area was not viable for sub­sis­tence farming. Nev­er­theless, the sub­di­vision, spearheaded by then Kilome MP Mutinda Mutiso got the backing of local leaders among them Kalonzo Musyoka who clearly did not bother about the environmental concerns raised by critics of sub­di­vision. People then be­gun clearing his­toric natu­ral forests to settle in the area. Among the most vocal critics of the subdivision of Malili was a retired School Principal Mr B Mwove. He was shot dead one evening after returning from a heated meeting in Malili where he voiced strong opposition to the decision to sub-divide the ranch for whatever rea­sons or excuses. So far, two Malili di­rectors have died since the subdivision be­gun. One of them Councillor David Musau alias Mashambani collapsed and died during a meeting at the ranch. The other one was Josiah Munuka who died few months ago after paying out Sh 40million to brokers-Gate­way Logistics- who are still demanding over Sh 100m from the current di­rectors. Now Peter Mutua Kanyi, Munuka©s successor is alleging death threats against him unless he pays the brokers the rest of the loot. So we ask: Who is next in the Line of Fire? Kitui Central office launched Ngilu fetes constituents as she marks milestone Water minister Charity Ngilu hosted Kitui town business commu­nity to a banquet on the eve of Jamhuri day to inaugurate the ultra modern head­quar­ters of her constituency. In the grand ceremony guests were taken through Kitui Central's ten year Strategic Plan and the milestones achieved under Mrs Ngilu's three term tenure as area MP. There were no seats providing invited guests the opportunity to mingle freely at the Cocktail that reflected in style the hallmarks of town hall meetings popular in United States politics where elected leaders engage the people directly. It pre­ceded a Dance to raise funds for gifts for the constituency's orphans at Park Side Villa. Kitui Central De­vel­opment Association, Mbaitu FM, Syokimau FM and the Villa spon­sored the very successful dance. Answering questions, the min­is­ter de­clared that with the con­struction of administration com­plex, her con­stituency had set the pace for others in Eastern province to follow in prudent man­agement of public affairs. Among the major projects to be un­der­taken next year which the minister disclosed are, a Sh 2.2 billion town sewerage system funded by the Af­ri­can De­vel­opment Bank, Es­tab­lishment of a Teachers' Training College and Water Training Institute. ™Am proud because we have managed to es­tab­lish two uni­ver­sity campus and Medical training college during my pre­vious term in office∫ she said. The fully furnished complex which Mrs Ngilu said would be be­queathed to future area MPs has two wings housing offices for Constituency De­vel­opment Fund and Member of Parliament and his or her support staff. Mrs Ngilu urged her constituents to always de­mand better service delivery from their elected leaders, saying ™Let us put aside our petty grievances that draw back our progress and work hard to­wards overcoming our challenges∫. ™I promise you, we will trans­form this con­stituency and the larger district to be a model for others across the country∫ the minister said. Kitui District Commissioner Joshua Chepchieng said the scramble by commercial banks to es­tab­lish branches in Kitui was a clear in­di­cation that the town economy was growing rapidly. The DC urged organizers to es­tab­lish tradition by making the dinner an annual event to review progress and seek people's opin­ions on various de­vel­opment initiatives. ™This is a great step forward, where when some offices have had their offices closed down due to rent defaulting, this con­stituency has a mag­nifi­cent complex for their MP∫ he said. Kitui, Machakos Teachers raise alarm over theft of cash
TEACHERS In Macha­kos and Ki­tui are questioning decisions to raise funds from Schools in efforts that defeat the Free Primary Edu­cation Spirit. Education Permanent Secretary Karega Mutahi wrote to all Dis­trict Edu­cation officers in a circular dates June 23,2009, directing all DEOs to collect Sh 2,000 per school to support the School Empowerment Programme(SEP) in the dis­tricts. While it is not clear where the schools would get the money from, DEOs iden­tified a loop­hole in the directive and levied Sh.2,500 per school to support the same programme. The prac­tice in Education circles is that head teachers, once they get that opportunity, they levy fees on each pupil and at the end raise more than the Sh 2,500 that the DEO asked for. In Machakos, The Anchor verified that arising from the PSs circular seeking Sh 2,000 per school, the DEO's office wrote his own and instructed head teachers to raise Sh 2,500. Owing to weak and graft prone auditing unit within the ministry of education, it is not feasible that this differential would be questioned. At the end of it all, the DEO's office raised a cool Sh 122,500 over and above the SEP re­quirement, leaving most teachers furious, yet they could not raise a voice since their union-KNUT and the DEO's office were working closely. The DEO's office has also di­rected the schools to raise Sh 1,000 to support Life Skills programme. Life Skills In­duction courses have been introduced in Primary and Secondary Schools. The course is an initiative of the Kenya Institute of Education(KIE) aimed at incorporating HIV and Aids as a subject and learners are trained on how to navigate around the challenges of daily life. In Kalama division for instance, the 57 schools raised an Sh 57,000 and converged for a two day training. Teachers and their heads from all schools attended but the even ended in mayhem when teacher de­manded that the cash raised be accounted for s they did not see the rationale of raising funds to be shared by edu­cation officials. To date, teachers are de­manding the policy frame­work for Life Skills to avoid a situation where Edu­cation officials demand cash from schools so that they can share in unclear cir­cum­stances. At the Kalama meeting, teachers went without lunch without ex­pla­nation. When they ques­tioned why organizers had not made such arrangements despite the fact that cash had been paid, the organizers ran away and the course ended. In the Central Division, sources say that cash was collected and the course has not taken place and no one is explaining. A teacher interested in the course told The Anchor ™ Let those in charge know that we want to be told why the course was cancelled. Is it the money they wanted or could it be that the course was not crucial for the education sector?∫ Efforts by The Anchor to get a comment from the Machakos DEO Mr Abdikadir Ali failed as he was said to be on leave. In Kitui West District, cou­rageous Education officers have written to the Education PS to seek pro­tection, claiming that they are being forced to bribe local edu­cation bosses with money meant for programes like SEP and other workshops for education officers. A letter to the PS seen by The Anchor says in reference to the Education Officerº ™ He wants us to grease his hands when we take the money from the bank for use on Teachers Advisory Centre(TAC) man­agement or IN­SETS activities e.g. SEP which he frustrates us if we don't(Sic) Please safe(sic) us we are bullied∫ Teacher stabs lover to death

A Primary school teacher in Kibwezi district murdered his lover in cold blood in what the police termed a love triangle. The passion crime left resi­dents of Wote town in pro­found shock and disbelief. Makueni police chief Joshua ole Leina said the estranged Kibwezi Township primary school teacher stabbed his lover with a knife from the back, piercing vital organs. The man is said to have visited the woman in the house she allegedly lived with another man on Sunday night and threatened to kill her after he unsuccessfully persuaded her to return to live with him. He made good his threat to kill her when he returned in the morning and attacked her. She came out screaming for help before collapsing and dying dramatically a few metres away as neighbours watched. Both the deceased and the man hailed from Kwa Kavisi area in the new Kathonzweni district. Leina said the woman; Ms Cecilia Mueni operated a boutique in the town. Her body was removed to the Makueni district hospital mortuary to await a post mortem ex­ami­nation. The OCPD said the assailant was arrested moments after the murder. The man was later charged with murder. Other reports said the re­la­tionship between the woman and the teacher became frosty mid this year when she moved to Wote. There has also been a dispute over their child with the man wanting to be given custody after learning that there existed a rival hitherto unknown to him.