#WeKnowYourSalary: Its about revealing the misuse of their role as a Public Officials!

If you thought the revelations in Kenya on the Social Media was about showing the sky-rocketing pockets and the super-soaked wealth of the highest ranking officials in the Country. Your wrong, this isn’t to show how they went from being petty civil servants, preachers and whatnots a decade ago. No, this is to show how murky the grounds and how they have swindled the state. To become extravagant and wealthy.

This is how key public officials in both the counties, in the ministries and as parliamentarians are using their positions, their knowledge of trade and also creating tenders to secure wealth for themselves and their close-knit family. This is how someone working as procurement manager and also as MCA suddenly has a palace, dozens of cars and owning plenty of land. Just mere a year ago, he couldn’t even splash out on the pub on a round of beers. Now he can buy the bar and build a garage for his SUVs. That is what this is about.

Because this is about how the likes of Deputy President William Ruto can own a mansion complex, dozens of houses, a car-park, choppers and earning measly millions. This is about how the family of Kenyatta can own more and more businesses, while the state is lacking funds. This is how other Cabinet Secretaries goes from being poor to suddenly become billionaires. They are all suddenly well fortunate and able to build houses made of dreams. They can own cars that only are in magazines, they can own local hotels, farms, industry and even media if they have enough cash. This is people that is supposed to represent the people and serve them.

Not take from them and later charge them, not only take the taxes, but they are also eating of the profits in the private sectors. Nothing is holy. The Cabinet Secretaries, the President and DP knows this, the local government politicians knows this. The people deserve to know how the ones humble fellow human beings becomes richer than God. They become so wealthy, they can take the bank on a trip to Dubai and rent Lexus in Las Vegas. This being brothers who couldn’t even afford to share a chicken as students.

That is why this is important. To show the disgrace this officials are, how they are eating of the public and have no scrutiny. How they are emptying the state reserves and taking the public for granted. That is why they run for office. Not to represent anyone, but to pocket the taxpayers money, use the position in the state and also get corporate deals with the state. All of this to enrich themselves on the office, not to serve the community. That is just something they say to look good. But when the measures and the end of the day is shown, the bills and the tab will be on the state, while the public see very little, but the official will have the cake, the coffee and the bride. While the public will have the bread-crumbs. Peace.

Bitter-Sweet Sugar: Cartels total control and inaction of Jubilee – Contaminated imports for profits!

We can wonder and think, who in their right mind orders contaminated agricultural products, rebrand it and sell it on the open with a clear conscious. That is what should bugle us right now. That the Kenyan Authorities together with the Sugar Cartels are accepting this and profiting on it. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have ordered, imported and tried to sell it on the market to the consumers. That is what is up and happen as the minor stops of it. The people should be worried about the authorities and what they are exposed too on the daily basis. When they cannot even trust the white sugar they are consuming.

The Kenyan people should worry, that the illegal imports through Kismaayo of Somalia, the illegal cartels of Mombasa and other places are highly-connected has pocketed key figures of industry, ports and in the ministries. If it wasn’t so, they would have had more trouble with the law. They wouldn’t just take a load of contaminated sugar, they would have ceased more and banned this trade. However, the government are doing little except tough talk. Even Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i is supposed to die over this, but he will not stand-by his side-dish. So I doubt it.

It is like the Jubilee knows about the ill they are getting in, thinking of the profits and of the friendly owners of the millers. Without thinking about the citizens who possible consuming it and how it might hurt them. If it is contaminated, it might damage the body and even cause fatal ills for someone. Then someone dies over something as petty as illegal and deadly sugar. Has that even been considered? Wouldn’t that been an avoidable tragedy?

That the government, the agencies and the authorities in general haven’t delivered is obvious, while this is not only hurting the average citizen. Who could be worried about going to the market and supermarket to pick a kilo of sugar. But also the farmers who produce for the millers. They don’t know if the millers and the authorities is helping to sell second-level or third-level products from afar. While rebranding it with their labels, like the ones that comes from the local producers. Then the public will loose trust with the millers who makes this sugar.

This here is the proof of how not to run, how not to delegate and not to use the oversight role as government, as they are misusing power, being in bed with the cartels and not giving a fig about the population. Because if they know they are illegally importing through Mombasa and Kismaayo, the authorities should stop it and get rid of it. Not let it go, let it be rebranded and made ready for the market. Because then the suppliers, the supermarkets and the consumers all loose on it. Only the Sugar Cartels and the Importers earns on it.

They are spiking, they are playing and coming with a dangerous product that shouldn’t be consumed by people. It should be used for matters, if not just confiscated and destroyed at arrival. Than ask for reparation of damages and possible breaches of contract, as they we’re not given edible sugar. But dangerous ones, that shouldn’t be produced in the first place. Peace.

A Working Paper reveals the political stakes in the Kenya-Somali Illegal Sugar Trade!

The Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) have had a study into the border trade and sugar exports through Somalia into Kenya. How it is used and how it gets to the market. Clearly, the market for sugar is there in Kenya. As the Sugar Industry is struggling to deliver enough sugar and the state has embargoed imports. Still, the same actors and the same politicians are doing behind closed doors agreements that put the sugar in stores through the porous borders of the Kenyan-Somalian border.

The paper itself paint the picture very well and show the importance of the export, since the magnitude on both economies are affected by it. It is also implicating big names and their organizations. As the politicians has another black-market cartel item to sell to the public. What was striking was that the importers together with local merchants are repacking the sugar into bags of the State Owned Entity (SOE) of Mumias. The Company that has been saved the state after devastating corruption and also lacking investment into the mills. Therefore, the politicians has used this name to trade illegal sugar with name. That they even used the stickers to prove it was of Kenyan quality while selling it to the public.

The quotes I have taken, is what see as important. But its compelling to show the this illegal imports into Kenya affects the politicians and the economy in general. Take a look!

The Amount of Money:

“Raw sugar accounts for 10% of total Somali imports rated at US $188 billion (Observatory of Economic Complexity 2016). In other words, sugar importing is enormously lucrative and important for the local economy on both sides of the border. The sugar imported from Somalia is central for covering the production and import deficit in Kenya. Most sugar enters through Kismayu port where it is manually loaded onto trucks and driven to the Kenyan border. There it is re-loaded onto other trucks, four-wheel drive vehicles and even donkey carts to cross the border on the so-called ‘rat routes’ that circumvent the border posts to avoid the payment of bribes, random checks by the Kenyan Revenue Authority (KRA), and the occasional confiscation. Based on interviews and observation JFJ estimates that 150,000 tons of illegal sugar entered Kenya from Kismayu in 2014 (JFJ 2015). This amounts to US $400 million worth of annual revenue divided between KDF, Al-Shabaab, local businessmen and politicians, as well as local police and border patrols, including the KRA (though this is not formal revenue) (JFJ 2015)” (DIIS Working Paper, P: 10, 2017).

KRA:

“The investigator explained how his unit, in collaboration with the Kenyan Revenue Authorities (KRA) and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), had planned the raid of a warehouse in an industrial area of Nairobi. They had found tons of processed Brazilian sugar allegedly smuggled into Kenya via Somalia, and it was now being repackaged from 50 kilo sacks into 500 gram and 1 kilo bags bearing the Kenyan brand Mumias Sugar and with added stickers from KEBS showing that the product meets Kenyan standards of production and quality. The repackaged sugar is – when not confiscated by the authorities – sold to retailers as refined Kenyan sugar at a huge profit. In 2014 a one kilo sugar bag sold for KES 133 in Nairobi supermarkets, and by May 2017 prices had gone up to KES 170 with some supermarkets rationing it to one package per customer” (DIIS Working Paper, P: 12, 2017).

Political Influence:

“Like the former Nairobi governor Evans Kidero, the Garissa governor Nathif Jama Adam, and the Garissa-born majority speaker of parliament Aden Duale are rumoured to be implicated in the sugar trade (Rawlence 2016: 236). These rumours reach all the way to Nairobi where they can be voiced more freely than in the north. The power of the people implicated by the rumours is more distant in Nairobi, whereas in the northern parts of Kenya the secrecy associated with the rumours points to the importance and power of those involved” (…) “With devolution, local government has become more powerful and more is at stake for locally elected officials due to their increased budget responsibilities and decision-making powers. Concomitantly, local government has become more vulnerable to pressures from local stakeholders like strong businessmen, militias and other state actors. The porous border, the circumvention of border patrols, and the implication of government officials ranging from KDF to KRA means that much of the sugar is not declared to Kenyan customs officials, making Garissa county one of the largest illicit markets in the country. The flow of goods across the border and further into Kenya formally falls under the responsibility of KRA and the national government. Yet the county government is responsible for local revenue collection and enforcement at local markets and car parks, and they also issue licenses for traders. In that sense the warehouses in the region fall under county administration. The latter thus plays an important role in the possibilities for the redistribution of smuggled goods” (DIIS Working Paper, P: 15, 18, 2017).

This here is evidence of cartels, illegal trade that is benefiting the political elites in Kenya and in Somalia. They are both having knowledge of it and its undermining the embargoes and also the activity itself. Since the politicians are the ones that has put in the provisions and the laws to stop imports to secure the local sugar industry.

This paper shows how much money that is involved. It is big business and the cartels are earning fortunes on lie, where they take foreign cheap sugar and trade it as Kenyan sugar with stickers of authenticity of KEBS. That is clearly a violation in itself, but combined with the illegal sugar, they are even using sophisticated methods to trade it to the public. To make the sugar seem like Kenya, when it isn’t.

That this money is shared by many different part of government officials was implicated int the trade from Kenya Defense Force Officials, Kenya Revenue Authority Officials, Border Patrol, Politicians and even Somali terrorist organization Al-Shabab. So the Kenyan are sending military to Somali to fight Al-Shabab, but at the same time giving them revenue with illegal sugar trade. That is a striking a fact considering the use of military to secure safety for Kenyans. Therefore, the cartels are also making sure the reason they are fighting inside Somalia are funded by the stakes into the illegal sugar industry. That should put some alarm bells on. That the politicians are playing with matches and should know that this cartel plus funding of Al-Shabab might hurt them in the long-run. Instead of being just a profitable business.

This is eye-opening and also a tale of corruption and sugar-cartels using the porous borders between the republics in favor of those dealing illegal sugar and selling it on the Kenyan market. Certainly, this sort of thing will implicate bigger names, than the ones mentioned in the paper. If investigated and looked through. You could certainly also find many bigger names who has created massive wealth within short amount of time. Peace.

Reference:

Rasmussen, Jacob – ‘SWEET SECRETS: SUGAR SMUGGLING AND STATE FORMATION IN THE KENYA–SOMALIA BORDERLANDS’ (December 2017) – DIIS Working Paper 2017:11

Jubilee Foundation fundraiser for Jubilee Party are so big, that Sunday Times Journalist Walter Menya gotten arrested!

That Journalist Walter Menya, the Sunday Nation article released on the 18^th June 2017 ‘Civil Servants in JP Foundation say all they want is to ‘alleviate poverty’. This is the foundation behind the fundraiser for the Jubilee Campaign and raised a billion. There are key players and main politicians of the Jubilee Party, which are apparently parts of it. That is why the article that was released today has left the journalist behind bars and even the spokesperson for the Kenya National Police Service had to describe the reason. The apparent reason wasn’t revealing the sudden misuse of a Non-Governmental Organization for Political Fundraising…

That show’s how the Police are involved with the Police Service in Kenya, when a journalist writing a story on her. Therefore, it is ironic that the journalist who wrote the story are arrested on bribery. Because if the article is true, than the Jubilee Foundation are used to fund the Jubilee Party, therefore the fundraiser who raise Shs. 1Bn Kenyan shillings. That is hefty a sum of money, that President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, together with Energy Secretary Joseph Njorge who is also on the board of the foundation, also Titus Ibui. And the Foundation is very new since it was registered on the 26^th May 2017.

The Fundraiser was released like this by Kevin Munyui on the 4^th June: “A Fundraising by Friends of Jubilee Foundation will take place on 9th June 2017 at the Safari Park Hotel Paradise Gardens to raise Funds to support Jubilee Party and H.E. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential campaign ahead of August 8th 2017 Elections” (Kevin Munyui, 04.06.2017). So what the Journalist Walter Menya wrote today is public information. It is just the billion of shillings that went from a registered NGO to the Jubilee Party Campaign.

Alex Mwangi wrote on the 10^th June: “Those who wish to share a table with President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto in today’s dinner organised by the Friends of Jubilee Foundation will have to part with at least Sh10 million. The dinner will be at the Safari Park Hotel, Nairobi. Those who will afford the Sh10 million a plate meal will get a chance to share a table with the President and the DP. “We have been told that those who will pay the amount will automatically sit with the President and the DP at the high table and will at least have a chance to interact with them,” a billionaire businessman told the Star” (Alex Mwangi, 10.06.2017). Certainly, there must have come a bunch of well-willing people on the fundraising dinner, as the 10 million a plate clearly made the business community paid a fortune to get an opportunity to influence the President and his Deputy in his coming election. This funds and plates of food has cleared given the Jubilee Party funds for paying the dates to the ones they need to pay to get power.

I have to say it and I mean, the Jubilee using the Police to detain Walter Menya for writing this story is a cowards. They are weak human beings with no ethical behavior what-so-ever. President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto, need serious guidance, they need some help. The help they need is some common-sense. If they had a sense that was common, then the Jubilee Party shouldn’t be corrupt.

Because the Jubilee Foundation, the Jubilee Party and the leadership has been in the open with the whole fundraiser has been on public display in the days ahead and also in the estimated funds it got in. Even the invitations to it was blatant and proving that the NGO was fundraising directly for the campaign of the President Kenyatta and the whole Jubilee team.

Kenya: Hon. Francis M. Nyenze statement “I am in Wiper and in NASA to stay” (13.06.2017)

Kenya: Mumias Sugar letter – “Ref: Receipt of KSHS. 239M from (SDL) and Financing of Hon. Benjamin Washiali Jubilee Campaigns.” (13.04.2017)