Outgoing Tourism CS Najib Balala is trending for the wrong reasons as he desperately seeks for a chance to serve in William Ruto’s government.
Balala has urged Ruto to consider him as Tourism CS so that he can finish whatever he started, days after congratulating him on his victory in the August 9 general elections as well as after the ruling by the Supreme Court on the presidential petition.
“I am happy and humbled and I thank President Uhuru Kenyatta for giving me the chance to serve the nation. I welcome President Ruto and I am ready to serve in his government whenever it’s necessary,” he said in one of his statements.
He has further aligned himself to Ruto’s camp by calling for action against IEBC Vice chairperson Juliana Cherera and her colleagues who distanced themselves from the presidential results that Wafula Chebukati announced on August 15.
“Impunity must be dealt with or otherwise it will return to haunt us….. the people who almost caused blood shed on the night of the IEBC result announcement…the likes of team Cherera must be brought to book . It is not vengeance but order in the public interest,” he responded to one Ruto’s ally post on twitter.
A video has however emerged of the moment when Balala asked those who criticized him over the death of 10 rhinos to go to hell.
“These are sideshows. I am going to stand with what is right. Nobody has appointed me, it is only Uhuru Kenyatta who has appointed me. I can tell them to go to hell, I can not comment about rhinos now,” Balala said.
“It is Uhuru Kenyatta who knows I have the capacity to run the wildlife docket and nobody will intimidate me, they want to destroy KWS so that they can take over the parks and start using emotions of international people to raise funds for their lifestyles that are not accountable,” he added.
Najib balala should not be anywhere close to our President Ruto. pic.twitter.com/uhac1ssrrq
— solomon mwai (@msolomwa74) September 9, 2022
That was back in 2018 just months after the handshake between Uhuru and Raila Odinga and he was in the company of Environment CS Keriako Tobiko who referred to Ruto as a clerk and former Mombasa governor Hassan Joho, who is also notorious of criticizing the president-elect. The rhinos died after being transferred from Nairobi to Nakuru.
Because of the video, a section of Kenyans have suggested that Balala should not be close anywhere near the Kenya Kwanza government as others suggest that he should now retire with Uhuru.
“To my friend Balala, you are not the only Kenyan who was born to serve as cabinet secretary for tourism. You have held that position for more than 15 years. That’s enough. Move on. Retire. Find something else to do. There are 35 million unemployed Kenyans,” Miguna Miguna said.
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