President Uhuru Kenyatta (right) and Deputy President William Ruto look on as Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter addresses members of the public during a tour to thank people who voted for the Jubilee Government from the Rift Valley region on December 16, 2013. Mr Keter has accused the Jubilee government of sidelining scholars from Rift Valley Province in distribution of government plum jobs. PHOTO/FILE
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The Jubilee government was at the weekend accused of sidelining scholars from Rift Valley region in distribution of government plum jobs.
Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, at the same time, censured the government over alleged exaggeration of the cost of constructing new Standard Gauge Railway line.
Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, at the same time, censured the government over alleged exaggeration of the cost of constructing new Standard Gauge Railway line.
Mr Keter regretted that much as the Jubilee alliance received overwhelming support from the region, scholars from the province had been denied big jobs in favour of their colleagues from central Kenya.
“It is absurd to note that out of the 30 plum parastatal jobs, The National Alliance has been allocated 27 while United Republican Party got a mere three,” he said during a fund-raiser at Kesebek Pentecostal Assemblies of Africa in Bomet. More than Sh200,000 was raised.
The lawmaker was accompanied by Bomet Women Representative Cecilia Ng’etich, MPs Benard Bett (host), Sammy Koech (Konoin) and Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary-general Wilson Sossion.
Mr Keter said if the Jubilee government meant good for its coalition partners, the plum jobs should have been shared out equally.
“If Jubilee coalition government can only allocate URP three slots, yet it is part of it, then what is the fate of scholars in regions that never voted for it in the last General Election?” he posed.
“It beats logic for those in power to misconstrue that am undermining its administration when I pinpoint ills in the government.
I will always stand by what I say so long as I know am speaking the truth”.
On the Sh1.3 trillion railway project, whose tender the government allegedly single-sourced and awarded to a Chinese firm, Mr Keter claimed that the cost had been exaggerated to suit the whims of those in power.
He pointed out that the standard cost of constructing one kilometre of a railway line— like was the case in Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia— was $2 million, and wondered why the government was parting with $6 million for the same length.
He regretted that upon completion of the project, the government would have made the taxpayers to unnecessarily pay the contractor Sh400 billion, which would have been saved had its tender been floated.
The Sh400 billion, he noted, is enough to employ 1 million jobless youths and criticised the government of allegedly targeting to retrench more than 100,000 public servants yet it had enough money to “waste”.
“If the government can afford to lose Sh400 billion in one contract, how much of the public money will it squander in the remaining four years of its tenure?” he said.
The MP warned that unless the government reverses the trend, he would table a motion in Parliament next year to demand that 90 per cent of the national revenue be allocated to county governments and leave 10 per cent of the same to the national government.\
The MP warned that unless the government reverses the trend, he would table a motion in Parliament next year to demand that 90 per cent of the national revenue be allocated to county governments and leave 10 per cent of the same to the national government.\
MPs Bett and Koech said they supported Mr Keter’s concerns on the distribution of top government jobs.
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