Ruto fights off tide of graft claims

Deputy President William Ruto has waded into the swamp of corruption allegations, admitting that he owns a stake in the hotel alleged to have been built on airport land.

However, he denied involvement in the attempt to acquire a section of Lang’ata Road Primary School, which culminated in protesting pupils being teargassed by police.

Appearing on Citizen TV on Tuesday night, Mr Ruto said he was a shareholder of Weston Hotel near Wilson Airport which is build on land that the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority has always insisted belongs to the airport.

Mr Ruto, no stranger to land controversies, declared himself a clean man and defended the Jubilee administration against claims of runaway corruption.

He said the opposition was trying to distract the government from delivering on its election promises. Two months ago, President Uhuru Kenyatta presented to Parliament names of 176 public officials, including five Cabinet Secretaries, suspected of involvement in corruption.

Such is the crisis that the board of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission resigned to avoid investigation, while parliamentary watchdog committee, PAC, was disbanded.

Weston was in January dragged into the controversial grabbing of the playground for Lang’ata Road Primary School, apparently in an attempt to convert into a parking lot. However, Mr Ruto distanced the hotel from the saga, saying the owners of school land were in court.

At the time, Mr Ahmednasir Abdullahi, acting for the hotel, said it was owned by businessman Patrick Osero who has since been suspended as the chairman of the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC).

“I have interests in Weston Hotel. Weston Hotel is completely different from Lang’ata Road Primary School. Each one has its own title. The title for Lang’ata Road Primary school is in court,” he said.

ROUGHED UP BY POLICE

The school’s pupils made headlines in January after they were roughed up by police as they protested at the taking over of their playground by a private developer during the December holidays.

The case has since moved to court with Airport View Hotel claiming it owns the part initially hived from the school.

“There is a person who owns the land of Lang’ata Road. He has not denied ownership. He is not a ghost. He is not a foreigner. He is a Kenyan. He is in court. He is the owner of Airport View Limited which owns an entire estate near Wilson Airport,” he said.

Mr Ruto denied claims that the land on which the hotel stands was grabbed from KCAA, saying that they bought it from an individual — who he did not name — to whom it had been allocated. He challenged his detractors to find out the truth from the records at the Lands registry.

“We bought the land and the transfers are there. We didn’t buy from KCAA. We bought the land from people who had been allocated the land and the documentation is there. Why is it so difficult for people to go and get the truth?” he asked.

Mr Ruto also used the opportunity to tackle another corruption controversy — the Sh17 billion renovation of the Eldoret-based Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, where it was claimed that people alleging to act for him demanded bribes from those awarded the rehabilitation tender.

The case emerged last month after Mr Herbert Ojwang, a former personal assistant of Cord leader Raila Odinga, submitted recordings before a National Assembly committee implicating Mr Ruto’s associates in the deal.

Mr Ruto said he cancelled the renovation tender and ordered a new hospital be built, arguing that the repairs were a plot to fleece the public. He argued that no one was prosecuted because the plot was allegedly foiled before any public money was spent.

“The good side of it really is that nothing bad had happened. These were just fishermen trying to look for deals,” he said.
President Kenyatta and his deputy have been under pressure to tackle corruption with the Opposition, clergy and civil society accusing them of paying lip service to the fight against sleaze.