Wetang’ula meets House team

The much-awaited meeting between Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula and a parliamentary team investigating the acquisition of foreign missions took place on Thursday with the minister defending the purchase of the property in Japan.

The minister told the committee on Defence and Foreign Relations that millions of taxpayers’ cash was saved by buying the Tokyo property. He said the acquisition was a priority as the government was spending Sh48 million in rent every year.

“It was too costly for taxpayers,” the minister said. Buying new land, he said, would have cost more as it would need to be developed while rent still needed to be paid during construction.

The proposal to acquire the property, which includes a chancery and a residential building, was mooted in 1989.

But it was not until 2006 that then ambassador Dennis Awori revived the idea of buying the property.

The reasons given were its location in a prime location and its easy accessibility. Some 15 other embassies were located in the neighbourhood, he said.

Mr Wetang’ula denied that his ministry had rejected an offer of undeveloped land for Sh603 million, saying it had shot up to Sh1.38 billion when the government sought to buy it.

Condemned property

After evaluating seven alternative properties, the government settled on the initial property as the rest were “unattractive and unsuitable”.

He denied that the government wasted money on the property, that was bought for Sh1.524 billion, as it was already developed.
“It is untrue that this was a condemned property,” he said.