Deputy President William Ruto has shockingly revealed that he was not aware that the original owner of the land where Weston Hotel stands was fraudulently acquired.
The DP made these revelations during a BBC talk show dubbed HardTalk with one, Stephene Sackur.However, Dr. Ruto said that he had followed all due processes while acquiring the land which today is at the center of controversy over its purported ‘illegal acquisitions’.The DP instead passed the blame to its former owners whom he says had tricked him into buying property which they knew was not rightly acquired.
He further says that investigations are underway to unearth the truth of the matter and that the anomaly should be rectified accordingly.While inquiring about the status of Weston, Mr. Sackur asked the DP to explain about the Weston Hotel controversy.“Can you explain something about the Weston Hotel, which is said to be yours and which is said to be sitting on illegally acquired land,” Mr Sackur asked the DP.In his reply, the DP stated that“We may leave that topic for now as that is a big story…,” as he wanted to evade the question.
However, the host interjected and informed him that Kenyans are following up the subject with a keen interest.“Kenyans are very concerned about this issue and as you are aware, recent Opinion Polls have placed you among the list of leaders perceived to be corrupt,” said Mr Sackur.Upon this, the DP replied that: “For your information, Weston Hotel sits only on 0.7 hectares of land…, though many people would want to think believe that it occupies half of Nairobi.”Regarding opinion poll outcome that considers him as among the ‘most corrupt politician’ in the nation, Mr Ruto explained: “If you look carefully at that Ipsos list which rated me as the most corrupt, that list did not only have William Ruto but other leaders such as former president, the current president, and the former Prime Minister Raila Odinga… Specifically, most of the current political leaders appeared in that list. This will only tell you that the whole corruption story has been politicised.
By Silas Nyamweya
