Nairobi gubernatorial candidate Peter Kenneth splashed millions of shillings in bribes to journalists and sponsored a maliciously fake narcotics story that was published by the Standard on Sunday.
Kenneth, derogatorily referred as “Mzungu” by his political opponents was targeting his chief Jubilee challenger Mike Sonko and Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho.
Kenneth believes Sonko and Joho pose the greatest challenge to his ascension to both the helm of Nairobi and, in 2022, the presidency.
Joho, the indefatigable Mombasa governor has become a nightmare to Jubilee politicians angling for 2022. Deputy President William Ruto has used the war on drugs story to seek inroads in Mombasa and other coast counties.
Sources reveal the kikuyu elite named in the Standard on Sunday story like Kiambu Governor William Kabogo, ex-wife to Mwai Kibaki Mary Wamboi and two others were mere collateral damage.
Kenya Today has established that the Standard is under pressure to pull down its online story and retract as law suits, including a 100 paged demand letter by “the boss” tycoon John Harun Mwau tricked in, first and furious.
The story titled, Drugs:US targets key Raila and Uhuru allies has put the fearless Standard on Sunday Managing Editor Denis Galava into shame. We have learnt that Galava, a Joho-man, was overruled by higher-ups when he protested the publishing of the story.
Kenya Today has also established that Nzau Musau has since privately apologized to Governor Joho.
The lead story was cobbled around anonymous sources and politicised by dragging in the names of Uhuru and Raila to make it sexy.
“It was a classic case of armchair journalism with no new facts but fashioned as a news story. The Standard on Sunday readers were conned, and many top subscribers have since officially posted their disgust to the management” a highly placed source at the Mombasa Road based paper said.
That Galava was a victim of a reckless, irresponsible and corrupt cartel of journalist that has often controlled the Standard weekend team, turning the paper into useless scandal sheet, has rankled the new editor, who left Nation in a huff a year ago.
Before Galava was hired, cartel had placed the paper at the disposal of ex-Devolution Minister Anne Waiguru and used it to spin narratives to turn the graft heat away from the former powerful cabinet secretary, now silently fighting a slew of corruption charges with DPP Keriako Tobiko closing in on the NYS scam.
Days before the narcotics story was published, Peter Kenneth met tens of journalists at Jubilee restaurant known as Dove Cage where millions of shillings were splashed.
Among those who attended the meeting were Nzau Musau and Daniel Wesangula who later penned the propaganda narrative.
“It’s true, Kenneth is playing dirty. His idea is to paint any opponent as dirty. Perhaps its time for Kidero to also open his wallet if he is to survive,” a source who attended the meeting told Kenya Today.
In the story, Wesangula and Nzau conveniently failed to mention that those who had been linked to the 2011 narcotics dossier was cleared by the Kenyan police in a police report that was tabled in Parliament.
The report, prepared by then top anti-narcotics detectives headed by then Deputy Commissioner of Police Alfred Ombaba said there was no evidence to sustain charges against the four MPs and a Mombasa businessman named by Saitoti as the ones mentioned in the US embassy report.
The report recommends, among other measures, the profiling of suspects of drug-trafficking, all entry points in the country be supplied with sniffer dogs as well as continuous surveillance on known and suspected drug barons and peddlers.
Surprisingly, Nzau and Wesangula failed to name recent cases of drug hauls whose culprits have received court bails by banks associated with top politicians in the Jubilee regime.
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