Ruto’s name dropped from list of Weston Hotel owners

Weston hotel along Langata road in Nairobi in a picture taken on May 3, 2022.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

President William Ruto’s name has dropped from the list of directors and shareholders of Weston Hotel, leaving the company, like many other businesses associated with the head of state, in the control of his family members.

The President’s name was not among the shareholders or directors of Weston Hotel in the latest disclosures by the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority—which hosts a list of directors in firms that have secured government business.

The disclosure, which appears in a portal labelled the Public Procurement Information Portal (PPIP), reveals the names of five directors, including the First Lady Rachel Ruto who is referred to in official documents as Chebet Rael Kimeto and the President’s daughter Chelagat Ruto.

In September, Dr Ruto’s name was listed in the portal as one of the directors of the Nairobi-based hotel, along with his wife and daughter.

Although the President had at one point publicly admitted to being linked with the hotel after years of denials, his name had never featured in any official documents until it was revealed in the PPIP.

It remained unclear why the President’s name was missing from the list of Weston Hotel directors.

His position in the hotel has increasingly been interpreted as a case of conflict of interest as it continues to bag government contracts.

In the US, billionaire US President Donald Trump has faced calls to liquidate his assets to prove he does not intend to profit from the office of president.

There is no legal requirement to liquidate assets but past US presidents have set aside their business dealings.

In Kenya, there have been increased dealings between Weston Hotel and government departments and agencies in recent months.

Search results in September showed that Weston Hotel has won more government contracts than any other city hotel since the Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza administration rose to power in September 2022.

Currently, the portal only shows 21 hospitality contracts valued at Sh38,351,803.

In September last year, the 117-bed capacity was linked to the supply of 37 contracts valued at Sh57.9 million. It was not immediately clear how the drop occurred.

Although the Conflict Interest Bill 2023 is yet to be signed into law, Dr Ruto will be keen to avoid any suspicions of benefiting because of his position.

Besides Trump, the late Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, and former South African President Jacob Zuma are some of the presidents who have faced accusations of conflict of interest.

While serving as Deputy President, Dr Ruto linked the court case seeking to have Weston Hotel demolished to a political scheme to scuttle his ambition to succeed then President Uhuru Kenyatta in the 2022 presidential election.

Mr Kenyatta backed opposition leader Raila Odinga in the election after he fell out with Dr Ruto.

Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) had been pushing for revocation of the title issued in the 1990s, which ultimately would have led to the demolition of the Weston Hotel.

The government with the backing of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) developed the Conflict of Interest Bill, which was to ensure that public officials don’t use their assets to profit from the State.

Senators mutilated the Bill by removing tough measures designed to discourage public officials from doing business with the government.

The Bill is yet to be passed because the National Assembly must approve the changes.

“A public officer shall not be a party to or beneficiary of a contract for the supply for the disposal of goods with any reporting entity,” says the Conflict of Interest Bill before being watered down by the Senate.

In 2019, Mr Kenyatta directed the Attorney-General to draft a Bill that would restrain all public servants from privately engaging in activities that conflicted with or benefited their offices.

There have been several cases of powerful public servants having used their positions for private gain.

“For example, MPs, including Senators, should no longer use committee powers to demand information from public officers, and then utilise that same information in their other pursuits. State and public officers will have a simple choice, serve in the public arena or do private business,” said Mr Kenyatta.

His proposals went mute until the IMF revived them when it entered into a budgetary support plan with Kenya in April 2021.

The plan is aimed at helping the country’s economy to recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and address debt vulnerabilities.

It was initially supposed to last for 38 months but has since been extended.

To help the country clean up its fiscal mess, Kenya was supposed to curb corruption, including publishing a law that would deal with conflict of interest.

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