Lay off the railway, Uhuru tells cartels

By PSCU

President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged the public to shun individuals whose interest in the standard gauge railway project is personal gain.

On Tuesday, the President said the Government followed the right procedure and the project will go on as planned.

"The very notion of economic progress is persistently threatened by conflict sparked and fuelled by commercial interest groups, be they local or international.

"We must tackle this hostile ideology whose character is ruthless, and method, insidious," he said during a Press conference at State House, Nairobi.

 

This comes just days after an advocacy group associated with the former anti-corruption czar John Githongo, wrote an open letter to the President asking him to suspend the Mombasa-Malaba railway project until all questions that have been raised over the tender are answered.

However, President Kenyatta, who was accompanied by his deputy William Ruto and Cabinet Secretaries, said businessmen, parliamentarians and members of the civil society should serve the good of Kenya rather their own self, or the interests of partisanship.

SHUN ATTACKS

"If we want those achievements, we must shun arrogant attacks on the progress we wish to make, and be ready to sacrifice," he said.

Critics of the Sh425 million railway project claim that the Government involved corrupt cartels in the tender process.

The railway deal is also the subject of investigations by two parliamentary committees.

President Kenyatta has however maintained that the project will be transparent and beneficial to all Kenyans.