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Talk of Town: Senator behaving badly, big boss battling shame
The Senate building in Nairobi.
Official demands cash for trips
Staff in a key ministry are angry with a top official whom they accuse of bringing the government in disrepute. The politician turned technocrat is said to demand a cut from every member of staff who travels out of the country before approving such travels. As a powerful figure in the ministry, he is required to approve all foreign travels for staff. In a recent case, the man is said to have demanded Sh150, 000 from every one of the employees who travelled to a neighbouring country. The staff were forced to play ball but were overheard complaining that the official has exported the political mentality into the mainstream civil service.
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Senator behaving badly
Some Senators are unhappy with their colleague whom they say walks into committee sessions fashionably late and inebriated with television cameras in mind. The man has a habit of hijacking proceedings with off-topic outbursts and immediately walks out, leaving others to clean up his legislative mess and steer the session back to seriousness. Cabinet secretaries who appear before committees have now learnt that the man is looking for content for his social media pages and no longer engage in his drama. Some members are now mulling changes to internal rules to tame what they consider bad behaviour by their colleague.
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Big boss battling shame
The boss of a State agency has been having a difficult time after his officers made a mess of an operation meant to arrest a notorious anti-government politician. The man dispatched the officers with loads of cash to fix the loud mouth politician. But apparently, the politician was tipped off by some of his moles in the State agency. When the officers arrived, their job was made difficult by a crowd that was waiting for them, causing an embarrassing and dramatic situation that damaged the agency’s image. The boss is still struggling to explain to his unbelieving political backers why the operation went so wrong despite the painstaking plans that were put in it.
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Power struggle over scandal
Two State agencies are embroiled in a power struggle that is threatening to scuttle a multi-billion-shilling scandal that has been ongoing for some time now. One agency has done its work perfectly well and is only waiting for one file from their counterparts in order to charge a politician, who is involved in the scandal. The agency with the politician’s file has, however, refused to hand over crucial evidence. The details collected by the agency abroad are said to be the only missing link for the sitting lawmaker to be charged. The head of the aggrieved agency is now plotting to report his counterpart to the appointing authority.
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Eyes on senior police post
A senior officer is eyeing the position of his under siege friend at the National Police Service. The officer, who is currently serving as a head of a State agency, is said to be salivating for the position despite his age, which risks locking him out of the coveted role since there is a proposal in Parliament to cap the age for that position at 60 years. The ambitious senior officer is said to be doing all manner of things to please the appointing authority so that in case the current holder doesn’t make it out of the current saga, he is among the favourites to replace him.
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Expert CS chases away ‘broker’
One of the ‘brokers’ in the office of a Cabinet Secretary in a powerful ministry was given matching orders last week after he blocked a governor from Nyanza from meeting the minister. The governor had arrived at the office of the CS at around 9am for a private meeting but was stopped along the corridor by the man whom officers at the ministry say has no defined role nor designated office. The man insisted that the governor must have an appointment. Shocked by the events, the governor called the CS who gave his security officials orders to chase the man out and never allow him anywhere close to the precincts of the ministry.
