RUTO MUST RETURN WESTON HOTEL TO KENYANS!
The response by the Deputy President regarding the illegal allocation of the parcel of land on which the Weston Hotel stands does nothing to assist his defence if he has any.
The Deputy President has responded by stating that he built the Weston Hotel when Hon. Raila Odinga was Prime Minister of Kenya.
He has also said that the land on which the hotel sits was not a subject of the Ndungu report on illegally acquired titles of public land.
On the first issue, we wish to state that the office of the Prime Minister was not involved in the approval of applications for change of user or building plans nor the supervision of construction sites. So the fact that Hon. Raila Odinga was Prime minister at the time when these approvals were given and construction undertaken is irrelevant.
Instead, we all know these matters surrounding construction were the mandate of the defunct City Council of Nairobi and judging from the number of buildings that continue to collapse in the city killing innocent Kenyans, many of these approvals were not obtained ethically and above board.
Regarding the fact that this property was not listed in the Ndungu report, we wish to reproduce some excerpts from the Ndungu report regarding how comprehensive their report was and why many titles were not exposed as grabbed.
“High profile cases of land grabbing could not be verified easily because relevant files had gone missing. In the view of the Commission, this was no accident and no reflection on the general competence and accuracy of the Records Department. It seemed to be deliberate”
Page 38, Ndungu Report
“Some ministries, State Corporation and local authorities did not send in the required information at all either out of negligence or intentionally.”
“The Commission was unable to get the necessary cooperation from the Nairobi City Council and other local authorities despite intervention by the Permanent Secretary for Local Government. The Commission was therefore unable to establish the full extent of land grabbing in areas administered by local authorities”.
Page 39, Ndungu Report
“While the Commission did not succeed in preparing a list of every conceivable illegal or irregular allocation of public land in the country, it managed to identify many such allocations…………”
Page 41, Ndungu Report
The title to Weston Hotel is just one of the many titles that were deliberately withheld from the Commission of Inquiry into illegal/ irregular allocation of Public Land, which the Commission observed in its report was done at a large scale.
In any event, the Commission was established on 30th June 2003 and published its report in June 2004. This is the period when the Weston Hotel title was being “grabbed” as is clear from the letters from the government annexed to this statement.
We therefore reiterate the demand made by Hon. Raila Odinga that the title to the Weston Hotel , must be revoked by the President if he is serious and honest about fighting corruption in Kenya.
We further demand that the government implements the recommendations of the Commission which are found at page 191 of the report. It says;
RESTITUTION
“The government should embark upon the legal recovery of all monies that were justly gotten through illegal allocation and sale of Public Land. The recovery should be extended to original allottees, professionals, brokers etc.”
PROSECUTION
“All public officials, private individuals, companies and professionals who participated in the legal allocation of public land in ways that disclose the commission of crimes should be investigated, prosecuted and/or retired from public service in the public interest”
Page 191, Ndungu Report
We can think of no better conclusion than that of the Commission itself . The Commission said:
“...illegal allocation of public land is one of the most pronounced manifestations of corruption and moral decadence in our society. It has also demonstrated the loss of public responsibility for present and future generations by those entrusted with power. The memoranda received from the people by this Commission leave no doubt that they expect nothing short of restoration of their land: Political statements made against this Commission during the inquiry on the other hand demonstrate the lack of shame on the part of those who may have benefited from the plunder of public resources. Such people would go to any lengths to protect their ill gotten property. At the end of the day, the challenge lies with the government to summons all its political will and might so as to implement the recommendations made in this report. Only that way, will impunity be stamped out of our society”.
Page 192, Ndungu Report
Hon. Opiyo Wandayi
Secretary, Political Affairs,
ODM.
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