Finally, someone like me who knows and respects Raila Odinga very much is beginning to think that maybe the Azimio leader actually knows what he is doing in this unity government with William Ruto which is in a formation phase right now.
The whole country is in a terrible shape. Every Kenyan knows that.
The Ruto government has no budget and yet we hear all the millionaire CS appointees in the vetting telling Kenyans they are worth hundreds of millions and that is each one of them.
No single nominee has been questioned so far who is not a millionaire. For the love of God will Kenya ever have a normal person who is not a millionaire but is qualified to be CS and handle Kenyan ministries? Every single Kenyan politician is a millionaire and we wonder why the country is in such a mess.
We have millionaires running a country of paupers. They have to keep the system that way for them to be millionaires. And for every CS who was appointed by William Ruto two years ago, their wealth has grown by more than Sh. 100 million.
Little wonder they want to get back to the cabinet and grow their wealth by Sh. 300 million in the next three years. After that, they are ready to retire as billionaires. That is what William Ruto’s government is all about. Everybody can see that.
The whole idea of vetting government appointees about their wealth as provided in Chapter Six of the 2010 Constitution was to make sure the appointees did not acquire wealth through corruption and stealing from Kenyans. Source of wealth was supposed to be the focus.
That is not what Kenyans are seeing as CS appointees are being vetted. Instead, it is a competition of how rich each appointee is. They are fighting to show how rich they are and for those being re-appointed, their fight is to show how richer they have become in the last two years since President Ruto put them in his cabinet. The whole vetting of CSs is just an annoying spectacle but what else can Kenyans expect from the William Ruto regime?
Sports and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary nominee Kipchumba Murkomen before the Committee on Appointments in Parliament on August 3, 2024 told the he has added Sh. 70 million in his net worth since being appointed as a CS in the crumbling Transport ministry. He needs to add more and that is what matters to him.
How many ordinary Kenyans are richer today than they were when William Ruto became the president of Kenya two years ago? Absolutely none except for William Ruto and his political class. That is the problem we have in the country right now.
And the political tension in the country has reached a breaking point. Kenyans have no more patience with their political leaders and this could explode beyond imagination. Here is Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja fighting for dear life as the citizens he leads cannot stand even the sight of him. This will be everywhere in the country unless the problems Kenyans face are resolved.
Kenyan citizens are growing very hostile to failed political leaders. This is going to get worse for every politician in Kenya. In fact politics could be the most dangerous occupation in the country because Kenyans are just plainly furious against their political leaders under this KK government right now.
Sakaja pelted with stones after visiting Toi market following fire incident
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja’s security team forms a protective around him as he was pelted with stones at Toi market on August 3, 2024.
Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja was on Saturday afternoon pelted with stones when he made a visit to the scene of an early morning fire incident at Toi market.
The dawn inferno, whose cause is yet to be established, left four people dead and traders counting huge losses.
Sakaja, in a video making rounds online, can be seen surrounded by his bodyguards who formed a protective shield around him while stones aimed at his head flew in the air.
But here is the big issue with this Raila Odinga the Azimio leader meeting the Treasury chief, Chris Kiptoo who works for President Ruto as the Kenyan economy faces possible collapse.
John Mbadi the ODM chairman has to perform a miracle and turn the Kenyan economy around as the Chief of the Treasury. If he can find a way to do that with the help of the Ruto government, he will be the next president of Kenya. Nobody has been able to do it so far.
Kenya Finance Bill 2024/25 has to happen and that is going to be the job for Treasury boss John Mbadi, President William Ruto, and Raila Odinga working together.
If it all crashes then the country will pick it from there and it will be worse that Gen Z rebellion we have seen so far. It won’t be good.
For two years the Ruto government has not been able to put up a legal budget for the country and we are spending billions from these illegal budgets. You cannot run a country like that. You cannot run a cat house like that. Apologies to cats.
Now Kenya has a new Treasury boss John Mbadi who is very qualified for that job. Can he finally put up a Finance Bill 2024/25 that Kenyans will accept and strive for?
I have my own ideas on how “Kenya Diaspora Investments Program” can be established and it could pour billions and in fact trillions into our national economy.
This could be a game changer for the entire Kenyan economy. There are so many Kenyans all over the world and they want to invest in their country.
You give them chance and the investments in the country would go to levels that would make Kenya move to a complete new level of economic development. We have to think outside the box as far as the economy goes and that is going to be John Mbadi’s job once he appointed as the Treasury boss.
We here in the diaspora put money in our country because we live there. We are there all the time. You need a house. If you have land like I do you have to invest in it. You build rental houses. You work with your family like I do with my four sisters who are all business people.
Here is the trick that Kenya can pull off. If the next budget provides for Kenyans in diaspora to invest in the country by bringing equipment for industrial use without excise duty and all the taxes I can say without fear of contradiction that Kenyans all over the world would bring billions worth of investments into the country every month.
If I want to build a bakery in Kenya, which I actually want, let me buy the equipment for that here in Toronto where I can get a loan to buy it. Then bring the equipment to my beloved Bondo Town where I have land and buildings which we are using for business right now.
The Kenyan diaspora is a pocket of gold for our country and we need to figure out how to maximize its utility beyond the billions in remittances already. These is what Kenyans send mainly for family and health support.
Open the business avenues for them and it will be magical. Kenyans out here want to invest in the country. It is their only home. Give them a chance.
Remittances are fine but we need investment opportunities. Today I was talking to my niece in a college in Thika and we had to pay the rent. And then I have my nephew the good teacher who had a motor bike accident and we have to figure that out. Those are the remittances and it is great but we want to invest in our country. Can we?
I was talking to one of my nephews who is a mechanical engineer from Nairobi University and he went back there and did a postgraduate in mechanical engineering and now he is a lecturer at a polytechnic but he wants to do engineering work.
So I told him why don’t you apply for those 400,000 jobs President Ruto has for Kenyans to go abroad and he just laughed and told me it is nonsense and there are no such jobs anywhere.
But yes we need to turn the remittances from Kenyans in the diaspora to investments by creating the right conditions otherwise it is just remittances for immediate family needs.
I urge John Mbadi to be the first Treasury CS to introduce a “Kenya Diaspora Investment Program”. The results would be great for our country. Please do it.
All the revenue KRA will lose from not taxing industrial equipment and products from Diaspora Kenyans to invest in the country they will gain a million times over when those projects are in place and we have a booming industrial sector in the country from Diaspora investments.
It is possible. They have the money and they want to put it down there. They have to do it for the country. Let them do it. I am one of them in Toronto, Canada. We want to put more money in the country and it is a great investment for anybody out here.
