Extensive details of the recent high level visit by Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan and cement magnet Aliko Dangote has emerged with alleged shocking revelations on how president Uhuru sold off to the Nigerians 46 oil wells of the recently discovered oil in Turkana even before drilling begins, a development that is going to attract a lot of bile from the opposition Coalition of Reforms and Democracy and Turkana County where Governor Josephat Nanok (ODM) is said to be ‘appalled’ by the news.
Nigeria’s Minister for Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke told the State-run News Agency of Nigeria after the Kenyan visit that the concession was given in talks preceding an investment forum held in Nairobi on September 6.
This was, however, not made public during the three-day visit that started on September 5.
The minister said the oil blocks were a “sweetener” that gave the West Africans a foothold in Kenya, which is a burgeoning frontier for investment in the oil and gas sector.
The oil revelations comes after another sell out where Uhuru gave his wealthy Nigerian peer, Aliko Dangote, the go ahead to set a new cement manufacturing factory in Kenya at a cost of sh 35 billion.
Even as Uhuru sells off Kenya’s newly discovered mineral resources, questions linger on what the country is getting in return. By Africa’s standards, Nigeria is a rich oil country and the world’s 13th biggest oil producer, with an estimated output of 2.2 million barrels per day, yet the president is said to have sold off the 46 blocks to them
“What are we getting in return?” This is the question many people are asking.
The question of national government interference with county wealths, like what Uhuru is currently doing, is part of the reason why the country voted for devolution. The central government’s role in the use, and management of regional resources has been a source of conflict, and part of the reason why people like Uhuru Kenyatta are wealthy.
It is a known secret that Jomo Kenyatta was a poor man who first went to study in London through a scholarship by the KCA, an outfit that pioneered the independence struggle and political agitation by Africans. How his family became the wealthiest in Kenya is a story whose flipside is the jigger menace in Central Kenya. This is a story widely known but rarely talked about; I dare not go further.
To some, Uhuru’s dalliance with the Nigerians is meant to offer him support as he plans to ignore appearing at the Hague. Goodluck is among the major supporters of Kenya’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute anchors the ICC and which Uhuru is increasingly believed will boycott come November.
Selling off your country’s mineral deposits is wrong! But is is this the first time? Kibaki is believed to have sold off Nyanza’s Migingo island off Lake Victoria for nothing other than buying Museveni support after the 2007 rigged elections. Sad.
By the way,in alight note, a question is often asked about the sale of the Grand Regency: If all Gaddafi ventures crumbled after the Libyan uprising; how did Kenya’s Laico survive? The answer, which is a joke, is that there were no Libyians. . .only Mt Kenya!