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By MUTUMA MATHIU, mmathiu@nation.co.ke Additional links By Mdaku
IN SUMMARY
No confidence in the Government Chemist.
Sources demanded that the president issues a statement to clear the matter.
Prime Minister Juma Hodari hiccupped six-and-a-half-times while having dinner at his Karen residence on Thursday night, we can authoritatively reveal.
The prime minister, dressed in a blue polo shirt, a beige jacket and a pair of whipcord trousers and suede loafers, was seated approximately six inches from the edge of the European oak dining table when the incident, which has caused strain in the coalition and threatened national security, occurred, according to an impeccable household source, who would not agree to be named discussing delicate food issues.
“The prime minister is known to hiccup three times when he is having supu and ugali, the food he was served on the material night. This is a wild deviation from the mean,” Party chief whip Joko Owadi said. “You can report that parliament will be investigating it.”
MR OWADI SAID HOUSE FINANCE COMmittee chairman Sulumu Sukumaka is to chair the team, to be named the House Select Committee on the Hiccup Affair.
The party has launched its own investigations with one official saying: “We have seen enough tricks in this coalition. We are the senior partner in government, and we are not prepared to be robbed twice.”
The official, who did not wish to be quoted expressing an opinion, said they had no confidence in the Government Chemist and were considering sending samples to the Tanzanian Chemist instead.
The official said they have so far been unsuccessful in obtaining a sample of the food, accusing a top member of the household of blocking their efforts. He said the household member told a sample-seeking delegation to “leave my family alone, you idle morons”.
But the party is undeterred, the official said, and has people on the inside working on the case.
This reporter was not allowed into the prime minister’s compound as one guard claimed that the family had advised this reporter to go and find something more useful to waste his time on.
Efforts to reach the prime minister to dispel this false claim by the guards, who were appointed by Party of Native Unity in Africa (PANUA), were fruitless by the time of going to press, but more efforts will be made in our follow-ups.
“It is an absolutely important political issue which must be investigated. It goes into the heart of power, has linkages to the presidential succession and significant correlations to our history,” said political analyst Mwatao Mutai on (sic) telephone.
Mr Mutai, though reached halfway through a steam bath at the Hilton health club, was, however, able to quote Nicolo Machiavelli and Karl Marx six times, to support his arguments.
At party headquarters, work was at a standstill when we visited, with workers huddled in small groups, discussing the incident in low tones.
“We ordinary, hard working people will not allow the people’s movement to be hijacked by reactionary and anti-change elements,” a top official, who did not wish to be quoted expressing an opinion, said before he was driven away in his official Mercedes Benz S-Class, blue in colour and left-hand drive.
“Don’t put that monkey on our shoulder, it has nothing to do with us,’’ PANUA spokeswoman Samantha Omwea, a lawyer by training and the president’s blue-eyed girl, said.
Vice-President Maridadi Maridhawa’s spokesman, Mr Kasoso Basoto, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “We wish our brother well, he is a national and not a party figure. But he should not dance himself lame before the main dance. Sympathy votes can expire in four years.”
THE INVESTIGATION IS CENTRING ON an uncomfortable relationship between the PM’s cook and a security guard.
Sources said the guard has been too cheery in his greetings to the cook, who has not demonstrated rebuffing of such inappropriate advances.
A security expert who worked for a city guard firm before he retired in 1980 said: “There has obviously been a serious breach. This is a national security crisis bigger than any we have faced before and it requires immediate attention from the highest offices in the land.”
Party officials, who did not wish to be named for reasons they did not reveal, said they were furious with Head of Public Service Nthiga Mutaratara, who has not issued a statement distancing the government from the incident.
The officials said Mr Mutaratara was “not treating the matter with the seriousness it deserved” and had maintained his stance of being “unhelpful”.
Sources demanded that the president issues a statement to clear the matter. The president’s spokesman, Mr Isa Matata, promised to comment but switched off his phone. Later he issued a terse press statement about “media madness over trivia” and “infantile cult of personality.”
The president was not seen in public the whole of yesterday and questions are already being asked about who is running the country.
Meanwhile, a civil servant claiming to be the Prime Minister’s spokesman yesterday issued a statement in which the PM extolled the media’s importance in democracy and the development of the country.
The civil servant claimed the PM asked the media to desist from confusing the public with “fiction, imagination and a sinister affinity for trivia.”
The PM’s official spokesman, Mr Slim Kaburu, retired last month and could not be reached for comment. Mr Mutaratara has blocked the appointment of a replacement.
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CORECTION & CRALIFICATIONS (sic)
This important story was intended for the front page and was printed here due to unavoidable inconveniences (sic). The error is utterly regretted.
Mutuma Mathiu is the Sunday Nation managing editor.
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