KALONZO MUSYOKA
Immediately after retired president Daniel Arap Moi settled on Uhuru Kenyatta as his successor in 2002, a group of loyal Kanu MPs confronted him and demanded an explanation for the unilateral decision.
Embattled, and his project Uhuru stuttering, Moi is said to have climbed down from his political swagger and went on to a monologue on why he thought Uhuru was the right man to succeed him.
Moi is said to have dismissed all the other contenders who were them national Kanu vice chairmen: Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Katana Ngala.
“Musyoka is a good man with a fantastic public disposition,” Moi launched into his monologue. “He has a great persona and can articulate issues effectively. But the problem is that he is double faced. He is only a Christian g the day time.”
Having introduced him into politics and literally babysat him during his formative years, Moi knew more than most.
He knew what he was saying about a man who served him as education, tourism, and foreign minister. He also served as the deputy speaker and organising secretary during the high noon of Kanu autocracy.
Today Moi is gone and after walking out of Kanu with Raila Odinga, when Moi imposed Uhuru on the party, Kalonzo has launched into the deep end of national politics.
He vied for the presidency and lost in the last general election and has proved a real thorn in the proper functioning of the Grand Coalition because he has really been trying come between Raila and President Kibaki.
Musyoka has desperately been trying hard to pass out as a third principal, to little avail.
Just like the Kalonzo of old, that Kanu wag who cheered and clapped for Moi endlessly and even opposed multi party politics, the Musyoka the VP still has no mind of his own.
He thinks the reason why he is not the president is because Raila even though he has never offered evidence.
Every time he opens his mouth he has attacked the PM even though the VP has been in government and parliament longer.
While he talks of ill of the PM, he fails to explain whether it is also Raila who is responsible for the underdevelopment and the wretchedness that is so rampant in Ukambani and Mwingi North in particular.
Having cheated the nation to the vice presidency after the debacle of the 2007, in which he was the lead vocalist among those who forced Samuel Kivuitu into fraudulently declaring Kibaki as the winner, Kalonzo is on the spot once again as the time to succeed Kibaki nears.
Much as he believes the Kibaki succession is his for the taking, The VP has managed to convince the world that his hands are not as embellished with corruption as his opponents.
But the emerging evidence suggests otherwise.
Evidence the Weekly Vision has gathered, through multiple interviews with sources at the ministry of Home affairs and observation of trends in the social scene suggest that the VP’s hands may be in the cookie jar.
Just as declares himself as the only ‘clean’ presidential candidate, a survey shows the country is slowly sliding into gambling anarchy as the his handlers seek funds to take care of the logistics required in bankrolling the elections.
The evidence in our possession suggests that the VP and close associates have built a significant war chest out through indiscriminate licensing of gambling business across the nation.
Because his greed for power supersedes that of Raila and Kibaki combined, Kalonzo is determined to leave nothing to chance as he desperately tries to succeed Kibaki.
Those keen enough must have noticed the number of casinos have more than doubled since Kalonzo moved to the ministry in 2008.
From a major three star hotel, the ambiance at Six Eighty hotel has waned so much so that today it is home to one of the biggest casinos in the region.
A walk down the street of Nairobi shows that at least there is casino on every street. In fact these casinos are operating in total disregard of the labour laws. Most workers are foreigners doing the most menial jobs like those of bouncers and waiters that Kenyans do.
It is not just that Kenya is receding to a gambling nation; the truth is that owners of the casinos are protected by powerful individuals within the Betting board who are closer to the VP.
This upsurge is so serious that it has encroached in residential areas and other down town areas of the city of Nairobi as the mad rush to mobilise resources for the 2012 start in earnest.
Gambling shows on radio and TV have increased during this period and more Kenyans are being conned out of their hard earned money as they try to win through call ins that are charged in excess of Sh50.
To show his lucrative the business and how Kenyans are being ripped off, the 8028 show has just returned on the screen.
Winners who submit their entries daily through texting SMs to this number will earn Sh500,000 in the next three months.
Simple maths shows for a company to pay such huge amounts of money, they must be making a real kill.
From May through July, the 8028 show was screened on the Citizen TV and winners were paid the money on a daily basis. This translates to slightly less than Sh50 million.
In one particular incident, a gambling 6969 show turned nasty when it emerged that there was collusion between the directors of the company, the media house, the Betting and Control Board and mobile phone providers where some unscrupulous characters fleeced billions of shillings from unsuspecting public.
The matter ended in court. The court had to order the cell phone providers Safaricom and Airtel to provide all details regarding the SMs as a show of the transactions. It has been claimed that some people who had not participated in the game had won billions of shillings in prize money.
This goes ahead to show the level of collusion between the directors of the company, cell phone providers and the media houses
The Betting and Licensing Board is the body that licenses casinos and all other programmes that involve gambling. The board is a parastatal under the ministry of Home Affairs.
While the public has been fleeced billions of shillings, the silence from the Board has been loud and shocking.
There have been suggestions that the VP could be a director in one of these gambling companies, even though there is no evidence.
However, this lack of evidence is sullied by the fact that the VP has remained silent as his ministry implements a policy that encourages shortcut to wealth creation and entrenches the culture of gambling.
It is hard to believe that even with the upsurge of these casinos Kalonzo, or better still, the government pretends not to know of the dangers they pose to the national economy.
It is even harder to the Christian that Kalonzo professes in day broad light.
Illicit brews have caused seriously damage to the social fabric in many areas of Kenya, particularly central province and Kalonzo has been one of those who have been loud in calling for tough actions against the people behind the brew.
But he has remained silent even as most young Kenyans lose billions of shillings
Just like the depreciating shilling, or the ever rising retail prices of sugar, a clique around the VP is exploiting the gambling industry to make a kill for the 2012 general elections campaign.
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