By Rita O
There are many vices in the world, some are prostitutes (even child prostitutes) but they have customers, some brew illicits and make cigarettes yet they have customers. Gambling is bringing down families and school children yet guess who owns the gambling bodies. We pride ourselves in our beer don’t we, yet our boardrooms and work places are filled with functioning alcoholics.
We cannot isolate one of these serious moral issues that ultimately are personal decisions and make a political agenda out of it. If it’s a legal matter then let the relevant bodies handle it just like ICC was handled. However if one has been with an addict of any of these please tell me which part of wisdom is in shaming them or threatening them? Even scriptures and prayers may not work as rapidly.
We cannot legislate morality, no we cannot, but we have to keep getting better together and that requires much more than political commentary on a podium.
Let’s not be lazy, If we really care as leaders let’s do the hard work of dealing with the matter because all consumers are from al tribes.
As long as there are no customers it is not a business. It is only a business because of customers. If they don’t get from one seller they get from another. Supply does not dictate demand, demand dictates supply.
Now sample this>>
Most of the people named in the USA Embassy report sent to the then internal security Minister George Saitoti were subsequently investigated by a Kenyan Police and cleared for lack of evidence. They also protested the inclusion in the list, declared their innocence and accused the US government of mounting a witch-hunt.
Mwau, Kabogo, Joho, Sonko, businessman Ali Punjani, Joho’s brother Abubakar and Mbugua were later interviewed by a special police probe chaired by Deputy Commissioner of Police at the time Alfred Ombaba.
The police’s interim report dated February 1st, 2011 was later tabled in Parliament. In the police report, Mwau is said to have addressed all issues raised in the Ranneberger dossier, a copy of which he had in his possession at the time of the interview with the police. He denied drug trafficking claims and association with people mentioned in the dossier, including the Akashas. Dossier claims that his daughter was married to Kabogo were disapproved by the police report: “He has no daughter and therefore cannot possibly be father-in-law to William Kabogo. He has also never employed Kabogo as his driver.” Kabogo told police that the Ranneberger dossier was posted to him at parliament’s reception. The contents of the report damaged his character and were not true. “No evidence has so far been adduced connecting him to drug trafficking,” police report said.
On Governor Joho
In his interview with the police probe team, Joho exonerated his family from “drug trafficking, murder, corruption, tax evasion, violence, intimidation and land grabbing.” He attributed the claims to a prominent rival businessman in Mombasa wanting to discredit his political prospects. “None of the witness interviewed has linked him to drug trafficking,” the report said.
On Mike Sonko
The police report said Sonko panicked when police sought him out over drug claims. He later met them, denied drug trafficking claims and admitted that he was in the “business of land frauds.” The police report did not make a specific finding on drug trafficking. Instead, it fingered him over failure to pay taxes: “He needs to be followed up by Kenya Revenue Authority.”
Businessman Punjani
Punjani also denied the charges and just like Joho, blamed a prominent Mombasa businessman for giving life to such rumours. He denied proprietorship of the businesses named in the American dossier. Just like Sonko, no specific finding was made on him by the police in regard to trafficking. Mbugua also denied the claims. On June 1, 2011, just six months after the list was presented to Parliament, Harun Mwau was hit by new sanctions. President Barack Obama ordered sanctions on the businesses of seven individuals linked to the drugs trade, among them Mwau and one Naima Mohamed Nyakiniywa.
But a report later issued by the Kenya Police report cleared Mwau and many of the people named by the Americans. The police said securing sustainable evidence against them “proved elusive” during investigations by a special committee established to look into Ranneberger’s dossier. “It was quite unfortunate that even those who made the loudest noise had nothing to offer in terms of giving information of evidential value,” the police report said. Mr Joho is quoted in the police report as blaming the attempts to link him with the drugs trade to political and business rivals. The Police committee had been tasked with unearthing drug trafficking in Kenya, expose those behind the trade and gather sufficient evidence that could stand before a court of law.
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