The Saga at The NSSF
During Moi and Biwott’s time, the NSSF was used as a personal piggy bank to finance their political operations and in the case of Biwott, to fund his various private businesses. The worst thing about this, is that the NSSF contains people’s retirement funds – money that people are hoping to rely on when they retire. However, we all know that Biwott was a despicable, pathetic human being and stealing people’s retirement funds probably never bothered him.
Now, it seems like John Munyes (what is this guys background?) is trying to do the same thing with other people’s money. He has fired what appears to be an effective NSSF Managing trustee because she refused to hire 15 people that he wanted hired! I’ve been listening to Munyes (or at least trying to) and I have yet to hear one concrete reason why he has fired this effective steward of the NSSF.
Ministers are not all powerful. They work under and for the president and this is one case where Kibaki should step in and tell this backward herds boy not to mess with people’s retirement funds and not to use the NSSF as his personal ego trip.
I’m increasingly getting irritated with Kibaki’s laissez-faire style of governance. It can’t work in a poor country like Kenya. If he is too tired to do the job, he should step aside and let someone like Michuki run the government.
You can’t let ex-camel herders run important ministries. A guy like Nyongo is languishing at medical devices, while this semi-literate is put in charge of a ministry that deals with people’s retirement funds?! 
Its back to business as usual in Kenya. Ministers are peddling influence thereby discouraging serious investors and causing long term damage to the economy.
The following ministers have been accused of hiring people who are close to them and not necessarily qualified to do the job:
Charity Ngilu
Anyang Nyong
Otieno Kajwang
John Munyes
Mutula Kilonzo
Kibaki is a weak president but then – what is Raila the so calld reformer doing? Afterall, Raila is in charge of the ministries.
Well said! Its hard to understand how a credible government can conduct itself the way the Kibaki government is doing. Ministers have been left to do whatever they feel like and to hell with the consequences. Very soon, Kenya will become the laughing stock of the world because one or other minister is going to do something extremely daft.
Most of the countries around us would never tolerate what our ministers are doing. Even Mugabe’s Zimbabwe hasn’t stooped this low. Actually, we are in the same league as the Central African Republic where the president appointed his siblings into the cabinet. Or Equatorial Guinea where the government consists of cousins, uncles and siblings. Or maybe better still, Omar Bongo’s Gabon, where the national treasury happens to be the president’s bank account.
Bravo Kenyans for joining this hall of fame!
Raila set a very bad precedent when he appointed his BROTHER as the Assistant Minister for Finance.
No wonder the ministers are following are following his example. He has no moral authority over them.
KE
Anyang Nyong was given that ministry by Raila. Maybe there is something that Raila knows about Anyang Nyong that we don’t. Or it could just be Raila trying to keep down his potential competitors.
On the other hand, Anyang Nyong has really surprised me by the way he has behaved in that ministry He has basically reappointed people who had previously been fired after they were accused of corruption. One wonders what he gained by doing that.
I never ever expected this kind of behaviour from Anyang Nyong. He is a real disappointment. I therefore believe that he deserves to be in that non-ministry!
Can you imagine what kind damage he could do in a big ministry like Finance or Internal Security?
KE
if you’d watched the story on NTV, you’d have heard of the relatives and ‘fellow tribesmen’ the nssf boss hired irregularly, not to count a son and a daughter-in-law of one of the board members (read; francis atwoli).
get the whole picture, not half, then report it. all nssf corruption swings both ways, in and out.
There was a news feature on NTV last week showing the bad side of NSSF, that is, justifying the minister’s decision. Unfortunately, the Kenyan media only knows how to play along with these games. A few days from now, the NSSF story will be forgotten as Kenyans are fed on information on the rightness of the minister’s decision. Meanwhile, the new boss in conjunction with the minister will be bringing in their cronies to take up non-existent jobs and all to be paid for by Kenyan workers.