The Ruto government has excelled in one thing for all the time they have been in office and that is making announcements every day. Ruto himself is somewhere announcing a housing project today and promising good prices for everything ranging from unga, sugar, fuel, and other commodities the next day.
The entire Ruto cabinet whether it is Moses Kuria, Eliud Owalo, Moses Mudavadi, and Ruto’s crazy DP Rigathi Gachagua all have to make sure they attend something to have their pictures taken by the obedient media, mainly the Kenya Star where one event can be pictured ten times and all pictures put in there.
Stupid announcements and bravado seem to be full-time job. Alfred Mutua the Foreign Affairs CS took it a step further in Canada taking pictures to announce the millions of jobs for Kenyans in Canada and asking Kenyans to go for the jobs. Wonderful success for Mutua to open those doors until the Canadian government through the minister in charge of immigration had to go to the media to tell Kenyans that Mutua was lying to them.
In reality, the opposite of what Ruto announces all the time is what Kenyans see in real life. The prices just keep going up, not down, and all those housing projects announced in grand events with loud pictures for the media it turns out Ruto does not have a penny to build any housing. What to do now?
On housing, Ruto has decided he is imposing a 3% forced deduction from every worker’s salary to build those houses in the next 60 years. We will come to that later. There are bigger issues to deal with now.
Today Ruto’s announcements of fake projects have turned into daily announcements of firing corrupt people running his government and unfortunately, those are even more fake than the projects.
KEMSA
We can start with the big scandal at the Ministry of Health and KEMSA where billions of donor money and tax money are being ruthlessly squandered every day and nobody in the government cares until everything explodes in their face.
After setting up the new scam masters, now the Ruto government just found out that more than 200 employees at KEMSA have been getting paid a total of Sh. 800 million while sitting at home and doing no work while other people were hired to do the work those being paid for nothing were supposed to do.
Finally, yesterday as everything was exploding, the CS for Health finally asked KEMSA workers being paid for nothing to report to work. Where has this Susan Nakhumicha CS for Health been all this time since she was appointed and she was paying people for sitting at home? And why is she still in the job after all the mess going on there?
Here we have one of the biggest scams ever in KEMSA, swallowing billions into the pockets of politicians and their appointees. Even donor money for mosquito nets that save the lives of thousands of Kenyans was being stolen by offering tenders to nonexistent companies by KEMSA thieves, until the donors cut off the funds and forced Ruto to pretend to act on theft going on in the Ministry of Health.
Ruto fired one of the alleged perpetrators of the sin Josephine Mburu but decided not to fire the bigger boss, Peter Tum in the ministry who was then transferred to another ministry.
The most glaring evidence that President Ruto is not interested in addressing this corruption scandal is that his own appointee in the Ministry of Health, CS Susan Nakhumicha is untouchable and keeps her job. This whole mess started on January 31 2023 when the Global Fund tenders were being submitted for mosquito nets and Kenya was due to get Sh. 3.7 billion worth.
For all of five months, nobody in the Ruto government figured out the big screw-up going on in the Ministry of Health may be because everybody had their cut.
So for Ruto, the solution was just to announce a few firings and transfers and everything is solved while keeping his key appointees in those ministries. The Ruto government takes Kenyans for complete fools and the citizens know that by now.
POISONED SUGAR
Apart from the huge mess in the Ministry of Health, Kenyans are facing another disaster for their health and well-being with the realization that the Ruto regime is now feeding Kenyans with poisoned sugar and just as the KMSA mess, Ruto had to make announcements about firing people and the whole quagmire has not been resolved because nobody in that government wants to solve the real problems the people face right now.
It is astonishing that these loads of poison have been in Kenya for 5 years. The Kenya government after buying rotten sugar from a private importer decided to keep the stuff all this time instead of destroying the whole load as ordered by the government.
Then heaven came to earth for the criminals hoarding this poison in 2022 with a new regime in place. The media reports are pretty clear on how the sugar was pushed to Kenyans.
After KEBS condemned the sugar, the commodities were taken to a warehouse in Makongeni, Thika where it’s suspected that they were stored for the last four years.
However, in December 2022, KEBS Managing Director Benard Njiraini wrote to KRA’s Commissioner General saying that the standards agency had received a request from the Assets and Cargo LTD to convert the condemned brown sugar into ethanol through distillation.
Njiriani’s letter was copied to Trade CS Moses Kuria and Head of Public Service Felix Kosgey. The letter was received by the KRA boss five days later.
Upon arrival at the storage, the team found that it was empty despite the existence of KRA seals on the locks of the warehouse.
Pointing to possibilities that the sugar had already hit the market and could be on shelves for sale, DCI has since launched investigations and is also searching for the consignment as it pursues KEBS bosses over the whereabouts of the condemned sugar that was meant to be destroyed.
The short end of the story is that under the Ruto regime, the big boys decided that since Kenyans are crying for sugar every day, give them the rotten stuff. That would keep them quiet for some time as they try to digest the poisoned sugar. Then it exploded and Ruto had to do something to look like he is solving the problem by firing people accused of committing these crimes, working under his government.
Nobody knows what is going on with this poisoned sugar mess. Ruto is busy firing KEBS officials and hiring new ones. Kenyans know that KEBS does not sell anything to the public. Ruto does not want to address the issue of who actually packaged the rotten sugar and was selling it to Kenyans.
Was it KEBS? Of course not. So who was selling this deadly stuff to Kenyans? Ruto wants to avoid that issue and the best way to do that is to fire all sorts of other people, look busy and let the rot continue in his government.
The other thing that bothers me about this sugar story is that I come from a peasant family and my mother had one commitment to us as her kids. She made sure we had breakfast before going to school. And then at lunchtime, we come to her food shop at the market in town and we can eat anything we want. Sugar was a big part of our breakfast whether it was tea or porridge with potatoes.
Then one day I am having my breakfast of porridge but I was also trapping birds outside with my little clever trap where I put bird food under the trap with a rope in my hands and as soon as the bird enters the trap I pull the rope and the bird is in there. This day I pulled the rope so hard that I knocked down my sugared porridge and my mother was furious with me. She wanted to go out and kick the damn trap and was she about to order me to go to school hungry while my sisters were laughing at my stupidity. She changed her mind and had to use the last bit of sugar to make me more porridge. So sugar means a lot to me.
CS MUTUA’S LIES
Then came the big blunder by the Kenyan Foreign Affairs CS about jobs for Kenyans in Canada. Mutua was lying to Kenyans that he had set up some kind of arrangements for Kenyans to go to Canada for jobs which will be waiting for them
Mutua’s bogus claims forced the Canadian government to do something they rarely ever do. In a statement, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the information provided by Mutua was false and the programs that had been referenced do not exist.
The IRCC said for accurate information on how to move to Canada, Kenyans should visit the country’s immigration website.
“Disinformation is circulating which suggests that special programs are welcoming Kenyan immigrants. This is false, and the immigration programs referenced do not exist. For accurate information on how to immigrate, visit http://Canada.ca/immigration,” IRCC said on Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
Mutua who is on an official visit to the country said, he held a meeting with the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada Sean Fraser and they agreed on the various migration opportunity pathways for Kenyans to go work in Canada.
Mutua said Canada has more employment opportunities than available people to work, thus the agreement to allow Kenyan workers help fill the gap.
He said the process for those who wish to go to Canada is simple but requires diligence.
“I was pleased to note that there are job opportunities within various economic sectors across Canada and Kenyans can travel as students, tourists and as workers,” the CS said.
“We are in negotiations and we will be providing a comprehensive statement within the next few days with guidance and links agreed upon between the Kenyan and the Canadian government so that Kenyans can apply for migration or job visas,” Mutua said.
I am a Kenyan who has been working and living in Canada for the last 36 years so I know very well how the system works and it was embarrassing that our Foreign Affairs comes here and makes complete nonsense of himself and even our country.
Every time I am in Kenya, my friends and relatives ask me how they can get jobs in Canada, and in fact, right now, I have a whole bunch of young professional Kenyans including engineers and medical workers who have asked me to let them know how the whole system works.
Immigrant workers come to Canada under a program called “New Worker” and once they qualify for that, they get a Visa to come to and get what in Canada is called “Landed Immigrant” status which guarantees them a work permit as soon as they come to Canada.
I came to Canada as a “New Worker” but in my case and that of many Kenyans at the time, we were political refugees in Tanzania who had come out of the Moi prisons and we just made it to Tanzania for our safety. In my case, I walked across the border and entered Tanzania by foot, went to Mwanza, and made it to Dar-es-Salaam when somebody paid a train ticket for me.
In Dar-es-Salaam, like many Kenyan refugees there we were taken to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) who accepted us and put us under their care.
It was the UNHCR who approached the Canadian Embassy in Tanzania to tell them they had many young Kenyans under their care who would be eligible to work in Canada. Once you are picked by the UNHCR the Canadian Embassy sends their officials to their office to interview every person.
If the Canadians find you suitable to work in Canada you get a Visa and the “Landed Immigrant” papers and the UNHCR paid for our air tickets and the rest is history.
Right now there are a lot of jobs in Canada and in many cities, they do not have enough people to do the work. In fact in the city where I live, Toronto, the employers have been increasing their pay rates to attract workers. So yes, Canada is looking for workers and many of them come from Asian countries. Hong Kong is big in that source of workers in Canada and so is India and Pakistan.
If we had a sensible government in Kenya this would be a perfect time to sort a system where Kenyan workers can come to Canada.
The first step in that is to set up an intake process for prospective workers from Kenya. That means the Kenya government, instead of making irresponsible statements would talk to the Canadian officials and the Embassy in Nairobi to facilitate a system where those looking for work in Canada can be interviewed and if deemed fit, will be given the Visa and “New Worker” status then they just pay for their own tickets and come.
The Canadian Embassy in Nairobi which is now like a fortress is not going to allow hundreds of people coming there for applications. That is where the Kenya government could help. Other than the Embassy, Canada has other offices in Nairobi for other things. If the Kenya government worked on a New Worker formula with them, they can set up offices to do those interviews and determine who fits their needs.
The first problem with that is if such an office was set in Kenya, the politicians and their corrupt friends will turn it into a money-making machine where their selected friends and those who pay them even if they are not qualified will flood such offices and Canada would close that in a few months not to be part of any scam.
Such a project would have to be done and facilitated by an independent professional organization like something called Kenya International Work Program which has to be run by credible people and not government agents or human smugglers.
Then Canada would give such an organization what specific qualifications they are looking for. Right now Canada needs nurses really badly because it has a large population of elderly people. If you are a nurse in Kenya you will get that Visa real quick, come here get some training into the Canadian system and you have a great job.
Canada also needs young mechanical, factory, and construction workers. Most young Kenyans would come and get those within no time. Those are just a few areas.
The big advantage Kenya has is that we don’t pose any security risk to Canada so our applications can be approved very fast. Right now we have tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan who have been accepted to come to Canada but sorting out the security evaluation is a nightmare.
I was just reading yesterday about one of the provinces in Canada, Nova Scotia which approved 1,500 new workers and only 100 have made it so far because of security checkups.
Canada by the way is the largest country in the world today. It is like a whole continent. It has a population of about 30 million people. The former USSR was the only country in the world bigger than Canada.
The one really big thing we need here as Kenyans are opportunities to invest in Kenya. The Ruto crew has no clue about that so it is a waste of time talking to them about it.
I will give you an example. If I want to set up a bakery in Kenya as a person working in Canada I can buy the entire set of equipment needed for that here in Canada. Since I work here I can even get a good loan to buy such equipment. The nightmare is that bringing such equipment to Kenya would cost me a fortune in excise duty and all sorts of other taxes to bring them to Kenya.
How about the Kenyan government sets up a system where Kenyan citizens who are also foreign citizens of other countries or certified residents in those countries can bring investment equipment to the country for first-time investment tax-free in Kenya?
Right now, just the remittances we make to Kenya as citizens living outside are one of the largest sources of foreign exchange in Kenya. If you give Kenyans out in all these countries the opportunity to invest in Kenya bringing equipment tax-free you would be looking at hundreds of billions every year. What could possibly be wrong with that?
I am going to talk about investment in housing at a later date.
