Drama and desperation in Ruto's relentless pursuit of police uniform tenders -

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The Star and The Standard shamelessly plagiarize Kenyan News Day scoops and package them as their own

The tender wars between Deputy President William Ruto and Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i that were first reported exclusively by the Kenyan News Day a few weeks ago have finally spilled out in public domain with local newspapers blatantly claiming exclusivity.

This week both The Standard and the Star were falling over themselves to “exclusively” report on the saga of the tender to supply new Kenya Police Service uniforms that DP Ruto has been actively pursuing for the last few weeks and that which Kenyan News Day exclusively covered at the beginning of December.

Typical of sponsored headlines, The Standard had a splash earlier this week run a sensational headline falsely alluding to a national shortage of fabric to manufacture new police uniforms which an angry Interior CS Fred Matiang’i dismissed contemptuously.

On its part, The Star which is notorious for plagiarism and for packaging stories already covered by Kenyan News Day as its own, on Wednesday splashed another “exclusive” adapted from Kenyan News Day reporting increasing tension Matiang’i and Ruto over various tenders.

Unknown to the readers of both The Standard and The Star, readers of Kenyan News Day had already consumed insider scoops about the tender intrigues going on between Harambee House and Harambee House Annex where Matiang’i and Ruto respectively have their offices.

It is emerging that DP Ruto and his wife Rachel were staring at a loss running into hundreds of millions of shillings since they had already placed orders for police uniforms to be manufactured in overseas ahead of completing paperwork and earning the contract locally.

The DP and Second Lady were so confident of bagging the order and wanted to cut down on delivery periods. The uniforms have been for more than two months sitting at an offshore warehouse awaiting export to Kenya.

Ruto’s dreams of pay day were rudely jolted when President Kenyatta abrubtly announced the uniforms would have to be sourced locally from the National Youth Service.

The announcement came as a big shock to the Rutos who immediately embarked on a relentless pursuit of Matiang’i, his PS Karanja Kibicho and IG Joseph Boinett.

A buoyant Matiang’i, in remarks widely covered by local media, corroborated Kenyan News Day December 1st story, when he alluded to pressure from a certain senior politician and his agents who were exerting undue pressure on his ministry over uniform tenders.

Unlike those who purchase The Star, readers who log on to Kenyan News Day for free would of course know Matiang’i was referring to Deputy President William Ruto and his wife Rachel whom we exclusively exposed weeks ago as being the powerful individuals in pursuit of multi-million uniform tenders at the Interior ministry.

Speaking at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development following a joint meeting with the Transport CS James Macharia, the boda boda task force on reforms and the parliamentary caucus on Transport, Matiang’i was categorical that no amount of pressure or intimidation or blackmail would make him overturn presidential orders on manufacturer of new police uniforms.

“Listen to me very carefully. We will not import police uniforms, go and write another 10 headlines. We will not import police uniforms from any country. We have to promote the local textile industry,” Matiang’i said.

Matiang’i who is spoiling for a fight with Ruto thundered that the days of stealing from the public through tenderpreneurship and cowbow contracting were over.

Sources in revealed that DP Ruto and his wife Rachel found themselves INA quagmire and were desperate to land the tender so as to earn enough to pay off huge bank loans the Ruto family owes local banks.

Back to the Star, it has twice in the past week adapted Kenyan News Day stories on the Akasha Organisation drug saga and passed them off as their own. So far, we remain the only news source that has named suspected drug kingpins who are under radar of the US Drug Enforcement Agency.