FINALLY FRANCIS ATWOLI IS REVEALED

Mr.Francis Atwoli with a COTU official.

When he recently appeared on K24 T.V station’s Capital Talk show hosted by Jeff Koinange, Francis Atwoli had no kind words for the political class. He never does anyway. As it has become his tradition, he dismissed MPs as inept, corrupt and anti reformists. “I’ve yet to see a reformist among this lot,” he thundered, in his typical provincial accent. “They are corrupt and they must be removed if the reform agenda is to move on without hitches”
On a very large scale, Atwoli’s views on MPs are true. They reflect the entrenched perception among the people that deep rooted interests within the political class may ultimately cost the nation an accelerated push towards the implementation of the new constitution.
Yet, as loud as he lashed out at MPs, the trade Union chief is never decisive whenever the issue of his participation in the deep end of the politics has been broached. When Koinange insisted on whether he will contest the presidency in 2012, Atwoli skirted the subject. When Koinange pushed it, he sought refugee in his supposed modest background, arguing that as a poor man, he didn’t have the resources required to bankroll the enormous logistics required to mount a successful presidential campaign, much less bribe voters as it is has the norm during electioneering period.
When Koinange challenged him to declare his stand for 2012 political dispensation, Atwoli prevaricated. This is hardly the way of valiant leaders, much as a story is told of a man who is unsure of himself, or plainly vulnerable to the competing political interests that define political discourse in Kenya.If the credit were given its due, Atwoli may be given the badge of honour for mastering the national psyche. Whenever he has commented on a national issue, he has been able to understand the feeling of the people and thus, effectively respond to the public mood.
But then who is this Atwoli? Is he as stainless as he purports to be? Can he, as PLO Lumumba would say, pick up the Hindu Gita and swear insofar as corruption is concerned? Given that corruption is a very private affair, these questions are vague, if not stupid, because it is never easy to prove corruption. But because Atwoli is a public servant and has, through boisterous public pronouncement, set very high moral standards for himself, always dismissing other people as corrupt, it is only fair that the same measure of morality is applied against him.
Atwoli is on record as saying that he wouldn’t be as loud mouthed as he is, if he were corrupt. During the 2009 Labor Day celebrations, in the presence of president Kibaki he openly named a high court judge as corrupt, it was in keeping with tradition of the man’s usual outburst. Unbeknown to most people, the cantankerous trade unionist may not be that clean after all. Cases of corruption have been thrown his way. Significantly the manner in which he has steered the trade union movement and insinuations that he runs a string of extortion rings around the country have been told and retold.
Nine years at Cotu, Atwoli is one of the richest Kenyans, competing with the richest business people in the land, even as workers he purports to represent wallow in poverty occasioned by high inflation brought about by soaring prices of essential commodities. During the Labour Day celebration he promised to call for national strike if the prices of essential commodities were not checked by the government.
But what can one make of a man who at the age of 60 thinks that buying expensive cars is more important than mobilizing workers to resist the high cost of living? A sh30 million –worth of a car when workers in large plantation work under very extreme conditions, without even the bare minimum is the story of Francis Atwoli, the man who harbors presidential ambition in 2012.
The recent appointment of a senior individual in government has definitely left Mr. Atwoli with an egg in the face. At the point when the country has decided to break with the past in the management of public affairs, Atwoli keep on rolling on in the false hope the world will wait for him. That he can say one thing in public and completely different in private.
The Weekly Vision can today reveal that there is more to that appointment than meets the eye and that a lot of money could have changed hands before he landed the job. A source within the trade Union movement, who is close to Mr Atwoli has given us a peek into the behind the scenes manoeuvres that culminated in the man landing a job that he least deserved, at least for lack of integrity.
A secretary general of a trade union has told us how Atwoli arrived in Kisumu in a buoyant mood on the morning of the May 20. It was on the eve of Cotu elections and Atwoli had ferried his troops to Kisumu before the d-day.
The source tells us that it was during the rendezvous at Tom Mboya College when Atwoli made it clear that they should support his friend in his quest for the job. Further to his Labour Day speech, Atwoli wants lawyers pushed out of the industrial court on the pretext they slow down the administration of justice. Atwoli’s view has been that employer’s capacity to higher top notch lawyers has compromised the capacity of employees to access justice and he believes that things could be easier if lawyers were to be withdrawn altogether from the court.
It is not clear how Atwoli expects to carry out his plans given that right to legal representation is enshrined in the constitution, but Atwoli wants to have a first one ahead of the Federation of Kenya Employers. Acts of corruption against Atwoli are many. A 2008 government financial audit of the National Social Security Fund recommended that Atwoli and Jacqueline Mugo be barred from holding public office. The audit found the two were liable for the loss of Sh1 billion of workers’ money in dubious investment deals when Atwoli served as the chair of the Trust’s Finance committee.
The report, authored by the Efficiency Monitoring Unit and launched by the minister for labour, John Munyes, further wants Atwoli surcharged and charged in court. According to the report, Atwoli is accused of having illegally earned a weekly stipend of ksh5 million from the fund in total disregard of the provisions that govern the institution. Further Atwoli is accused of having inappropriately increased sitting allowance to Sh45, 000 per sitting instead of the government sealing of Sh15, 000 in total contravention of orders from the office of the head of public service and secretary of the cabinet, Francis Mutahura.
But nothing exposes Atwoli to the probity test more than the fact that a question currently lies in parliament seeking a ministerial statement on the man true take home income. The question was brought to the house by Kitutu Masaba MP, Andrew Monda.

Starting 12th August 2011 we will be serializing the intrigues behind the appointment of the DPP Keriako Tobiko, the connection between Atwoli,Ndome, Caroli Omondi and Tobiko.