The Star 01/03/2017

Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu has confirmed that Auditor General Edward Ouko is investigating the alleged theft of Sh5 billion at the ministry. Mailu said the ministry will await the findings and recommendations of the audit but did not specify the time-line within which the report will be ready. “The auditor general responded to the ministry’s request and had from December 5, 2016, commenced a special audit on the subject matter,” Mailu told the Star yesterday. The investigations by the auditor come after a delayed probe by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. Deputy CEO Michael Mubea promised to conclude the probe within a month of his visit to the ministry more than two months ago. The probe was triggered after a leaked audit by the ministry’s internal auditor Bernard Muchere…

MOSES MUNGAI Orphan who scored A- Mungai, from Gwa Kung’u, Ndaragwa, and a former student of Nyandarua High School, Ol Kalou, has become the epitome of hope, resilience and determination. He missed school on many occasions to take care of his ailing mother, and eventually dropped out to fend for his five siblings after his stepfather abandoned them. See Page 24 MUSALIA MUDAVADI Appointed Luhya spokesperson The Western Elders’ Council has broken ranks with the Luhya Elders’ Forum over the community’s political direction ahead of the August election. ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi was installed the Luhya spokesman in Kakamega. Forum secretary PeterLudaava said Cotu chief Francis Atwoli did not consult all parties and leaders should not be appointed. See Page 29 HASSAN JOHO Mombasa Sh1bn contract queried Mombasa county has…

Universities who dish out degrees to unqualified students will be shut and the certificates recalled, Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has warned. Quoting the yet-to-be-released Commission for University Education preliminary report, Matiang’i said it had revealed that some of the universities in the country were admitting students who don’t meet the minimum required mark of C+ and above to their degree programmes. Even though proliferation of universities and commercialisation of higher education has improved access to education, academicians and employers have raised eyebrows over the saturation of university education. The institutions churn out graduates poorly prepared for the labour market, thus the announcement by the CS will offer some hope. “We are going to take action. It will be a difficult and painful reform. But it is necessary. I hope…

IS Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang’ula preparing to take on Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka? Some people known to be close to the Bungoma senator whisper to Corridors that Weta, as he popularly known, is seriously thinking about running for governor, following Musalia Mudavadi’s reentry into the opposition. We are told Weta thinks if he can’t get his way in Cord then the fallback position will be Bungoma, where he has sustained an assault on the Jubilee-allied Lusaka. CALL it an appearance - or broker’s - fee. Several MPs who showed up for Deputy President William Ruto’s massive New Year celebrations at his Sugoi home had every reason to smile as they walked home, not so baldly off, but with ‘something for the stomach’ for another day as well. Corridors has…

THE UON POLL, WHICH WAS PRIMARILY TARGETTED AT POLITICAL POPULARITY IN WESTERN KENYA, REVEALED THAT MUDAVADI WAS THE MOST PREFERRED CANDIDATE AMONG 39 PERCENT OF RESPONDENTS, FOLLOWED BY KAKAMEGA GOVERNOR WYCLIFFE OPARANYA AND BUNGOMA SENATOR MOSES WETANG’ULA, WHO TIED AT 30 A poll conducted by two University of Nairobi dons shows President Uhuru Kenyatta would comfortably win the Presidential election if it were held today. The poll, sponsored by Cotu Secretary General Francis Atwoli and executed by the UoN professors, shows Uhuru enjoys a 55.1 per cent following against his closest rival, Cord leader Raila Odinga, who has 35.1 per cent. On Saturday, at Deputy President William Ruto’s Sugoi home, Bungoma Governor Ken Lusaka and Water Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa dismissed the naming of ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi as the…

ANY Kenyan who claims to be a political pundit will have heard of Nate Silver. He is the American statistician and writer who first rose to global fame in 2008, when he successfully predicted the outcomes in 49 of the 50 states in that year’s US presidential election. He then went on to exceed this unprecedented feat in the 2012 election – Silver correctly predicted the winner in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. After this, for many of us who write about politics and world affairs for a living, it became an article of faith that when it came to understanding American politics, all that we had to do was to read Nate Silver’s latest predictions in his wildly popular FiveThirtyEight blog, and the truth would be…