Prime Minister Raila Odinga and former UN Secretary Kofi Annan at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town, Soth Africa on May 05, 2011. PHOTO / PMPS
By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, May 7 2011 at 22:00
Posted Saturday, May 7 2011 at 22:00
In Summary
- They are making many foreign travels a month, translating into millions of shillings in expenditure at a time Kenyans are grappling with cost of living
The cost of Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s frequent trips abroad is in the spotlight as a restless population grapples with the rising cost of living.
A review of Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka’s diaries reveals that each has been making as many as three foreign trips a month, translating into millions of shillings in travel and accommodation expenses.
Only last month, the PM spent close to three weeks on official visits to the US and France while Mr Musyoka has just returned from a week-long tour of India.
Barely two days after returning to the country from the tour of US and France, the PM was again off to Zimbabwe last Friday to open the third Movement for Democratic Change congress in Bulawayo.
On Wednesday, Mr Odinga was once again off to Cape Town, South Africa, to attend the World Economic Forum on climate change.
The PM and VP’s handlers have argued that the trips are strictly official and aimed at promoting Kenya on the economic front. But concerns are being raised about their cost to ordinary Kenyans already groaning under the weight of rising food and fuel prices.
The priority
It is these concerns that led to calls by assistant ministers Kabando wa Kabando and Ndiritu Muriithi to ask President Kibaki and the PM to ban all foreign travel and give priority to addressing the high cost of living and resettling the internally displaced people or risk an “explosion of discontent”.
“To stem the rising tide of imminent popular discontent caused by rising costs of living and botched IDPs resettlement programme, there is need for emergency attention to set comprehensive systems to deal with these challenges,” they said in a joint statement last Monday.
According to Mwalimu Mati who heads the anti-corruption watchdog Mars Group, the government must cut down on the trips and the size of the delegations so that the money is channelled to more worthy causes.
“The taxpayer is already footing the ministry of Foreign Affairs budget amounting to Sh8 billion a year to fund Kenya’s missions in virtually every country in the world. The government should cancel some of the trips and let Kenya’s embassies abroad undertake the missions on its behalf,” he noted.
“The arrangement of the trips is also very opaque. We never get to know who is in those delegations. They need to be transparent so that we do not have joy riders travelling at the expense of the taxpayer,” he said.
Similar concerns were expressed by Ms Wanjiru Gikonyo, the Executive Director of Institute for Social Accountability.
“It is wrong for the government to sanction these trips when the country has just embarked on the implementation of a very expensive Constitution. We have to set up governments in all the 47 counties and pay countless commissions to draft hundreds of laws,” she noted.
Ms Gikonyo accused Treasury of failing to cut down expenditure on foreign travel as promised during the last budget. “They have raised the figure instead, they are taking Kenyans for a ride,” she added.
Between January and last month, Mr Odinga made close to 10 foreign trips.
On New Year’s day, the PM travelled to Ivory Coast as a special African Union (AU) envoy to broker a settlement to the political crisis in the world’s largest cocoa producing country occasioned by a disputed presidential election pitting the incumbent Laurent Gbagbo and the globally recognised winner, Alassane Ouatarra.
The PM’s first mission failed to yield fruit forcing him to return to the country two weeks later to get the two rivals to agree on a negotiated solution to the crisis but he was once again unsuccessful. On his way to Ivory Coast, the PM toured Nigeria and held talks with President Goodluck Jonathan.
In February, the PM travelled to Addis Ababa to brief the African Union Summit on his failed mission to Ivory Coast.
The PM later travelled to Iran and Dubai where he attended an educational conference.
Come April and Mr Odinga left the country on a lengthy tour of the US in what he would later describe as a mission to woo investors, seek support for the country in various fields and update the international community on changes in Kenya.
During the tour, Mr Odinga opened the Africa Investment Conference in New York City on April 11 which attracted about 500 firms keen to venture into or expand their operations in Africa and are keen on what Kenya has to offer.
On April 12, Mr Odinga met US Vice-President Joe Biden at the White House where they discussed changes taking place in Kenya and in the region. Mr Odinga also held talks with former US President Bill Clinton in New York, who pledged more support for projects to protect the environment in Kenya.
While in the US, the PM also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
On the second leg of his trip, the PM headed to France where he launched the Paris-Nairobi Initiative on Access to Clean Energy for Africa and other African countries vulnerable to climate change and only returned to the country on the last Sunday of the month.
On the Zimbabwe trip, Mr Odinga was accompanied by MPs Lucas Chepkitony, Alfred Khangati, Milly Odhiambo and Dan Mwazo.
On the move
On the move
The VP has also been constantly on the move and spends as much time on foreign trips as in the country. Since last August, hardly two weeks pass without the VP making a trip out of the country.
For example, he travelled to China during that month to open a trade fair and cement co-operation between Nairobi and Beijing.
In October, Mr Musyoka travelled to Libya to represent President Kibaki at a forum to discuss economic co-operation between the two countries.
In November, he travelled to Nigeria to represent President Kibaki at celebrations to mark the country’s national day before spending a week in Egypt last December leading a government delegation which discussed co-operation towards harnessing water resources to support agriculture in Kenya.
In January, Mr Musyoka went on the so-called shuttle diplomacy to lobby states into supporting Kenya’s bid to have cases facing Ocampo Six deferred. The trips saw him visit at least nine countries including South Africa, Uganda, Malawi, Libya, Washington, UN headquarters in New York, Nigeria, Egypt and Ethiopia among others.
During his trip to New York to lobby the UN Security Council to support the deferral, the VP was accompanied by Cabinet ministers Njeru Githae, Dr Sally Kosgei and Prof Hellen Sambili.
The shuttles triggered a storm in Parliament with some MPs saying they were a waste of taxpayers’ money after it was revealed that they had cost the government Sh35 million with the VP’s Home Affairs ministry pumping in Sh31.5 million. People familiar with government spending, however, said the figures were understated.
During his latest trip to India, Mr Musyoka was the chief guest at the Indo-Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Forum. His entourage included Trade minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere, assistant minister for Roads Lee Kinyanjui and assistant minister for the Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands Mahamud Mohamed.
The VP’s spokesman, Mr Kaplich Barsito, defended the trips saying they were made in the interest of the country.
“Sixty to 70 per cent of the trips are delegated to the VP by the presidency and they are intended to strengthen Kenya’s bilateral co-operation with the designated countries or market Kenya’s investment potential abroad,” said Mr Barsito.
He also defended the size of the VP’s entourage.
“On average, the VP’s delegation comprises between five and seven government officials, carefully selected on the basis of the trip’s intended mission,” he noted.
But those who have seen the VP’s delegations say the number could be three times what Mr Barsito is giving.
It is not the first time Mr Odinga and Mr Musyoka’s trips abroad are raising eyebrows among Kenyans.
Two years ago, the government clarified that the trips by the VP and PM were official after MPs questioned their frequency and the fact that their entourages tended to comprise only ministers and MPs allied to them.
In a rejoinder, PM’s spokesman Dennis Onyango had defended the composition of his boss’ delegations.
No holiday
“The Prime Minister is never on holiday when he travels abroad and he never travels for fun. He does not, and did not travel to the US and Iran as leader of ODM but as Prime Minister of Kenya.”
Mr Barsito also dismissed the criticism, saying the VP had travelled before with MPs from both sides of the coalition, citing a trip to Zambia where he was accompanied by Cabinet minister Amason Kingi of ODM, among others.
Mr Odinga had just returned from a trip to Iran while Mr Musyoka had just completed a tour of Tanzania and Zanzibar.
On his trip to Iran, Mr Odinga had been accompanied by Cabinet ministers James Orengo, Anyang’ Nyong’o, Mohammed Elmi, Charity Ngilu, Fred Gumo and Sally Kosgei as well as Mumias MP Benjamin Washiali, and then Nairobi mayor Geoffrey Majiwa, all members of his ODM party.
The VP’s entourage to Dar es Salaam included ODM-Kenya MPs Philip Kaloki, Johnstone Muthama and PNU’s Kazungu Kambi and David Ngugi.
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