Kenya: Kibaki sends advisors home
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Dennis Itumbi, AfricaNews reporter in Nairobi, Kenya
President Mwai Kibaki has disbanded his entire Strategic Advisory Unit based in State House, in a move aimed at underlining his focus and interest on the dialogue talks chaired by the African Eminent persons led by former United Nations boss Kofi Annan.
The move silently implemented within the last three weeks, was a reaction to a secret document that almost messed the mediation talks between President Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga.
“By sending home his political advisors for implementing behind the door schemes without his information the President who acted after a high profile meeting in State House was passing a strong message, everything must be placed at the table and I must be informed, I am committed to the dialogue process and will punish anyone who is not,” our source who was present in the meeting explained.
Attempts to get a confirmation from the more liberal head of The Presidential Press Service (PPS) Isaya Kabira got a diplomatic response that indicated that all was not well at the former advisory office.
Said Kabira in a phone interview, “I have no statement on that, when I get a statement I will let you know.”
When we persisted he calmly explained, “…that one I have no statement, wait for when I get one and I will tell you about it….”
We then asked Kabira if it was true the Strategic Advisory unit had been disbanded to which he maintained, “ even on that one I will have to wait for the statement and I can assure you that you will be the first to get it when its ready…”
The unit headed by Stanley Murage, who has been serving as the advisor on strategic policy was sent packing over a negotiation document that gave surprise concessions to the opposition leading to an embarrassing denial by State House during the Ghanaian President John Kuffor visit that gave ODM political fodder to capitalize on terming the refusal by State House was a betrayal to their cause – never mind the facts.
Whereas we can authoritatively report that the unit has been disbanded we can not offer details on the fate of Murage, who different sources say may still play a key role in State House.
We can however report that he is no longer the boss of Presidential Strategic advisory board, popular as Economic advisors.
Africa News can further reveal that the official cars and security handed to his team have since been withdrawn.
Political affairs advisor Mrs. Nancy Gitau and Sam Mwale, who was the Economic and planning in the unit were the others affected by the changes.
However, Murage by the time of going to press still had his State House access rights.
Immediately, the reports filtered two weeks ago our reporters called Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua who expressed surprise saying “I am hearing it from you for the first time.”
Before promising to get back to us in a moment, the next thing Mutua was holding a Press Conference to deny the reports terming them “allegations”
In his official statement he explained, “we urge Kenyans to ignore text messages and other propaganda about government staff changes and replacements.”
Calls to the office of Murage had a standard response, “he is out, and can you kindly call back later”
That was the response to our fifteen calls over a period of 8 days as we compiled this story – a departure from tradition where Murage was always available at least for phone interviews.
A close ally of Murage who also spoke to us confirmed, “I may not be sure that the entire unit is disbanded, but I can tell you that Murage has left his job.”
“The issue is not the campaign funds, because Murage did not directly manage the coffers although he determined who got what allocation it is the issue of mediation…”
This is not the first time State House is not directly confirming the axing of a senior official, in 2006 the dismissal of Alfred Getonga – a long serving Personal Assistant to President Mwai Kibaki was treated as top secret until Getonga himself emerged to say “I have left State House to pursue business and other interests after the expiry of my tenure.”
The President did not publicly hire any other known Personal Assistant ever since and the office remains intact.
The same happened in 2004 during the famous spat between first lady Lucy Kibaki and Matere Keriri who was then serving as the State House comptroller.
Whereas it was public knowledge that Kereri had been kicked out, there was no official communication on the matter until Kereri came out in the open to admit he had resigned from his post.
During both times, like now, the profiles of the officials remained updated on the official State House Website.
Murage is a former PS for Transport in the Moi government.
He is also a principal shareholder in the Kenya Bus Company alongside Mr Samuel Gichuru and a key figure in Moi’s State House, Hosea Kiplagat.
Mr. Stanley K. Murage was appointed Advisor, Strategic Policy in October 2004.
Murage according to the State House website served for six years as a Permanent Secretary in several government ministries between 1994 and 2000.
“During this time, he was involved in major government policy reforms and privatization of parastatals in the transport and communications sector in the country,” says the website.
His career started in the Ministry of Public Works in 1974 where he served as a quantity surveyor and later as a group quantity surveyor.
He left government employment in July 1977 to join private practice as a consultant quantity surveyor and engineering project manager. He has been involved in the design and construction of many building and civil engineering projects both here in Kenya and abroad.
Born on 18th May 1950, Mr. Murage attended Kagumo Primary School .
He proceeded to Kerugoya Boys’ High School and Nakuru High School .
Mr. Murage then joined the University of Nairobi where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Building Economics.
He is also a graduate of the University of Aberdeen and American Inter Continental University , Atlanta , where he undertook a Master of Science in Engineering Project Management and a Master of Science in Information Technology.
Murage was among those mentioned in the alleged controversial visit by the Artur Brothers to State House during the proceedings before the Kiruki commission whose findings have never been made public.
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