In 1972, a shortage of meat forced the govt to license private abattoirs.
In short order, there was an influx of meat, much of which was of dodgy quality.
In 1973, the govt ordered that all meat transport vehicles bear a red stripe for identification.
1/ ---a thread---
2/ It was about the same time that Mohammed Ali Motha, a butcher, and his business partner Abdul Habib Adam, founder of Adam's Arcade, came up with the idea of a Halal slaughterhouse in Ngong under Halal Meat Products Limited.
Adam died in 1974, leaving Halal to the Mothas.
3/ In 1974, Jeremiah Nyagah, the then Agriculture minister approved construction of an abattoir and inspection unit at a cost of Sh9.6mn.
The govt loaned £500,000 (±Sh7mn) but declined to take a stake, a decision that would later prove rather costly.
6/ In 1977, the Auditor General, DG Njoroge (below) noted that interest on the loan to Halal had not been paid per the loan agreement.
A site inspection later found Dept of Veterinary Science employees working at the Halal plant.
Halal also exported meat, a preserve of the KMC.
7/ Several workers at the Halal facility were also former KMC employees and minister Jeremiah Nyagah believed that they were clandestinely using Halal to hijack the multimillion meat export business.
Corruption at KMC may have been long in the making.
8/ In 1979, Mr Nyagah decided to deny Halal an export licence.
Halal eventually shut down for lack of access to the export market.
In 1984 Tourism minister Maina Wanjigi (father to Jimmi Wanjigi) pushed for re-opening of the abattoir to process game meat for export.
9/ In June 1984, Pres Moi directed agric minister William Omamo (dad to CS Raychelle Omamo) to reopen the Halal abattoir.
He re-opened it, as a subsidiary of KMC.
In 1986 Motha sued the govt after a buyout deal fell through and in 1988, the govt resolved to hand the plant back.
10/ Attempts to settle out of court failed as the parties could not agree on valuation of the abattoir with the govt offering Sh287mn and Halal claiming a Sh350mn valuation.
By 1996, the government had not handed back the facility and it was guarded by GSU officers.
11/ In 2005, High Court judge Jeanne Gacheche awarded Halal/Motha Sh1.8bn, but ordered that the Sh27mn loan be deducted from the award.
The Appeals Court affirmed in 2016.
The award had then grown to Sh5.7bn with the Sh27mn govt loan now worth Sh1.1bn.
12/ In a project where the govt provided the capital, the land and the employees to run a private project, taxpayers in 2020 are on the hook for Sh4.6bn on yet another billion-shilling blunder made in the 1970s.
[Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) Mar 12, 1987]👇🏿
13/ Which brings us right back to the early 70s when the licensing of private slaughterhouses led KMC to some hard times.
KMC was established in 1950 under the KMC Act, to purchase livestock and acquire, establish and operate abattoirs in the country.
Nelson Mandela once declared that Ethiopia held a special place in his imagination.
Indeed, the land of coffee, ancient architecture and a resilient people does carry a certain mystique… and a very long, torturous history.
1/ --Long Thread--
[Pic: Children of the Omo Valley]
2/ See, Mandela spent two weeks in July 1962 in Ethiopia where he learned the tricks of guerilla warfare from Col Fekadu Wakene, a corporal in the riot battalion of the Ethiopian police force at the time.
Mandela was in Ethiopia by invitation of Emperor Haile Selassie I.
3/ At 1.1mn km², a population of 110mn & 80 ethnic groups, Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world, having come into existence circa 980 BCE.
Most intriguing is the nation’s ancient links to Islam, and Christianity, which was declared a state religion in 330 CE.
In 1899, Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, described events in the Congo as “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience”
Little did he know.
1/ The story of the Congo is one of untold suffering and spectacular plunder.
---Long Thread---
2/ Home to the 2ⁿᵈ largest rainforest (65% forest cover) & 2ⁿᵈ largest river in the world, the DRC is roughly the size of Western Europe with a pop'n of 84mn and a GDP of $50bn.
The value of Congo’s natural resources is estimated at $24tn, greater than the US’ $20tn GDP.
3/ Africa’s 2ⁿᵈ largest country has 10% of the world’s copper, 30% of diamonds, 80% of Coltan, 50% of Cobalt and 12% of hydro-electric capacity.
Mining ($11.6bn) accounted for 95% of exports, 28% of revenue, 20% of GDP & 11% of the workforce in 2016.
1/ When Nairobi started under Ainsworth, the first municipal budget was 7,161 rupees (± Sh150K), which only paid for the uniforms and salaries of 6 Swahili and 8 Indian policemen, 2 sweepers, and oil for street lights.
2/ Called from Machakos to serve as a top civil servant at the swampy town populated more by wild animals than by European settlers, Ainsworth arrived in Nairobi in 1899 at age 25.
Born in 1864 in the UK he died in 1964, at 100 years old.
[Nairobi in 1898]
3/ Prior to his arrival, British land surveyors had already come to Kenya and identified much of the fertile land as “unpopulated” and ripe for colonial settlement.
There was no knowledge among the Europeans of African land ownership, such as the Kikuyu system of gethaka
2/ As soon as the project was approved, they quickly abandoned the PPP and started an international open tender.
The tenders were then crafted in such a way that a select number of local companies were looped in through the backdoor as subcontractors of original manufacturers.
3/ Cabinet Secretary James Macharia, who was in charge of the health docket when the contracts were awarded, and Dr Muraguri, disowned an inflated price list submitted by his successor Sicily Kariuki, according to the parliamentary report. The two gave their own price lists
The Postal Corporation of Kenya, PCK or Posta, is the oldest parastatal in Kenya having been founded in 1901 as the Postal Services of British EA (PSBEA).
Over the years however, Posta has faced unending troubles due to corruption and mismanagement.
1/
---A postal thread---
2/ In 1910, PSBEA offered savings accounts and later evolved into Postbank Credit.
In 1994, the bank collapsed with Sh3.8bn in deposits and Sh3.6bn in loans, due to bad debts owed by connected individuals like Cyrus Jirongo.
2/ Anpi Pharma would under-quote to win the tender then after winning, would come back and state:
“freight charges and cost of materials have gone up. I want to vary the tender.”
3/ Before Kemsa, there was the Central Medical Stores ran by a Zachariah Shimechero, a Deputy Commissioner of Police at independence and later the Commissioner of Settlement of Squatters.