The issue raised on Wednesday in parliament by Cherangany MP Joshua Kutuny about the ridiculous amount of tax payers’ money that Raila Odinga spent during his recent trips abroad is not a matter of financial concern but a matter of moral concern.
Spending $ 7,000 a day for a luxurious presidential suite while IDPs are still sleeping in cold, rain drenched tatters is immoral.
It is a matter of national dignity that dignitaries from a country stay at prestigious hotels while abroad for no country would have its ministers or even president sleeping in a rundown shod of a hotel but this is only right if this dignity can be reflected back on its people back at home.
For what dignity is there in meeting with delegates at 5 star hotels where in their minds they have pictures of your people dying due to poverty, the ravages of war and sickness, illness and disease.
It would have been better for Raila not to go abroad and splash the money that Kenyans have paid for through their sweat, blood and tears.
But how can a society that does not seem to know the price of money expect more from its PM. In my view he is just like most Kenyans who wish they were in parliament and have access to the money that Kenyans have filled in our national coffers.
The price that people pay to obtain money is great and beyond compare to the price paid for anything else. The time factor entailed in the pursuit of money is tantamount to spending ones soul. For this time will never be recovered and life spent is gone never to be lived again.
People from affluent areas and those from the informal settlements all wake up early in pursuit of money and they spend the whole day in pursuit of it. They pay for it through their very souls.
Then Raila Odinga withdraws this money from the national coffers and goes spending it lavishly without a care for how hard it was for this money to be obtained. He forgets that he has been calling for the resettlement of IDPs and uses the money that would have done a lot for them on useless pomp and protocol.

This is not a matter of RAO alone the gava should change how it spends tax payers money especially when Kenyans are facing all manner of hardships. I would like Kuttuny and co. to come up with a motion on how to stop gava officials from spending lavishly our money on these overseas trips. Gava junior officials when even send to trips in TZ comeback here and buy plots after sleeping in backstreet hotels and later claim to have slept at 3 star hotels.

Statement and receipts!!!
http://walalahoi.ning.co.../statement-and-receipts

Kutuny googled presidential suite and the name of the hotel, what comes to the screen is $7000 that the USA president pays for the presidential suite in the same hotel......what an empty head we got here!!!!!!

Sigh, another RAO thread...

Great idea, but a question before I fork my G. Who has taken the land these people were on? If I can get an answer to this, I would gladly perform my duty.

Wait a minute, but when the Honorable PM was answering questions in parliament, what did he say? He asked if people expect him to stay in backstreet hotel.

http://www.nation.co.ke/.../-/ky9xlkz/-/index.html



Had he showed some shock at the figure ( since apparently he did not know),I would have given it a pass. But he defended it, right? It is good the statements of expenses are out BUT his reaction in bunge shows the person that he is,he and his people would have defended it,just the way the Vice president and his people defended his shuttle diplomacy at tax payers cost.Ok now lets hang famooz out to dry