Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Weston ‘owner’ Patrick Osero says DP Ruto his close associate
Patrick Osero, owner of Weston hotel and Deputy President William Ruto’s associate. FILE PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
A man claiming to be the owner of Weston
Hotel, next to Lang’ata Road Primary School, which is at the centre of a
land row, says he is a close ally of the Deputy President.
Patrick
Osero, however, denies that William Ruto has any interests in the hotel
that was initially suspected of being behind the grabbing of the school
playground. He insists he is the sole proprietor.
According
to him, Mr Ruto only visits the place as his friend and customer. Mr
Ruto’s daughter Shaleen, he said, frequents the gym at the hotel.
The Nation
established, however, that she also has an office at Weston Hotel in
spite of denials that the Ruto family has no interests there.
Mr
Ruto and Mr Osero’s friendship dates back to the early 1990s when they
were members of the Youth for Kanu ‘92, a notorious brigade founded to
counter the struggle for multi-party democracy and ensure entrenchment
of President Daniel arap Moi’s Kanu regime.
YK ‘92, led
by Cyrus Jirongo, gained notoriety for splashing out money that
ultimately was traced to public coffers. The activities of the group
contributed to the fiscal indiscipline that nearly bankrupted key State
corporations and statutory institutions, stressed the National Treasury
and led to near-collapse of the country’s economy.
The
organisation was also involved in large-scale grabbing of public land,
the ramifications of which are felt to this day in institutions that
were badly affected such as the National Social Security Fund.
JUBILEE BENEFICIARY
“We
met during YK’92 and he has been my very good friend and business
partner since then,” Mr Osero freely said of his association with the
Deputy President.
It is an association that has
benefited him under the Jubilee regime: “I am the chairman of the
Agricultural Finance Corporation and therefore, he is also my boss as
the Deputy President,” Mr Osero told the Nation.
The
bond between the two is said to be very strong. In the early years of
former President Mwai Kibaki’s tenure, Mr Osero stood surety worth Sh6
million for Mr Ruto in a court case involving land.
Mr Osero unsuccessfully vied for the Borabu Constituency seat on an ODM ticket during the last General Election.
He
said that he acquired the 1.7 acres of land where the hotel sits in
1998 from a company called Priority Limited and built the hotel last
year.
He did not delve into the details of how he acquired the land and how much it cost.
The land on which the hotel stands initially belonged to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority.
The
chairman of Wilson Airport Aircraft Operations Committee, Gad Kamau,
confirms that the Weston Hotel parcel was grabbed in December 2002,
shortly before the General Elections that saw Kanu lose power to Narc.
Mr Osero denied that he may be a proxy. “You think I cannot own such a property? Why are Kenyans doubting?” he asked
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