“Petty things like iPads should really not take anybody’s time. I have three in my house,” said Mututho.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 20 – He started with an apology. It was not his intention to keep the press waiting for over two-hours but as he saw it, it was another attempt to frustrate him out of office.
“You saw it for yourselves; being forced to go up and down in elevators like the waters of the ocean while I’m all the while waiting for you in my office. They are trying to keep the truth from coming out. That’s why they told you they did not know which press conference was called for,” he said.
‘They’ according to John Mututho is the William Okedi-led management of the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA).
“I don’t get support from the organisation I so much adore and one I created… (It’s a) shame that these things happen. But we cannot all sit here like Kaunda taking a handkerchief and sulking and crying when people are dying,” he said.
He claimed to have personally funded the activities he has undertaken on behalf of the agency in the last two months.
“I want to tell Kenyans today, Mututho is using his money to do this thing. These people are not participating…I’m getting least support from this building,” he said.
Support that did not include a Mercedes Benz and an iPad which he was reported as having demanded from the Authority on taking up the job as NACADA Chairman, reports he said were part of the campaign aimed at pushing him out of office.
“Petty things like iPads should really not take anybody’s time. I have three in my house. And I use my own car; unlike some people who are using their company allocated cars to drive their girlfriends up to Western,” he retorted.
Reports he considered an affront to what he claimed to be his near unimpeachable character, “I don’t take no drugs (sic). I can offer to go to Kenyatta, Nairobi Hospital or anything. Check including Viagra. Nothing in my system. No alcohol. From 1974 I took half a glass. Period!” he stated.
And he put his recent tribulations down to his blowing the whistle on a Sh375 million licensing scandal at the anti-drug agency and the alleged subsequent bribing of an auditor to keep it quiet.
“A lot of money has disappeared. How do you think it has disappeared? Take your piece of paper and pen. I’ll tell you. There are 30,000 alcoholic outlets in Nairobi. If the least cost license that you can buy is Sh12,500, that will give you how many millions?”
“Sh375 million is what you should have gotten. You all got it wrong like NACADA, what they have in their books is Sh12 million,” he revealed as he also accused the National Treasury of playing into NACADA management’s hands by recommending that the findings of the audit into the agency be returned to them.
“How do you go hunt for a thief and then submit the report to the thief; how does that work?” he posed.
He therefore called upon the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to conduct its own investigations into the finances of the anti-drugs agency.
“EACC are just around the corner but they’re busy having tea as all these things are happening,” he accused.
But even given the alleged resistance to his stewardship, Mututho maintained that he would not be bullied into throwing in the towel barring removal by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
“When I was a kid I was a fighter pilot and one day I will go to heaven marching and I want to account to my maker for my time. What they have against me is not my problem. I’m not here to be glorified,” he stated.
Even in the face of his perceived tribulations, Mututho found the time to give football club Manchester United some heartfelt advice:
“I want to console Man-U because their players don’t seem to be very sober. Let’s have alcoblow at the gates after their training sessions. It may sound petty but alcohol destroys you. You cannot score goals while you are taking alcohol.”
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