This archive report was first published on 14 December 2019.
On December 14, 2019, a shocking story emerged from Bahati Constituency in Nakuru County, where a single mother rejected a house gift from President Uhuru Kenyatta.
The woman, Damaris Wambui Kamau, had been promised the house after her son Dennis Ngaruiya thrilled the president with a poem four years ago during the Kenya Defence Forces day celebrations at 3KR Barracks in Lanet, Nakuru.
According to reports, the president had offered to build the house as a gesture of goodwill to the son.
However, when Ms. Kamau visited the house, she was shocked to find that it was substandard and had cracks on the outside, resembling a semi-permanent house.
‘This is a big joke. Look at this house. It has cracks on the outside and looks like a semi-permanent house while President Kenyatta in his wisdom meant well for us as a family,'” Ms. Kamau was quoted saying.
State House Spokesperson Kanze Dena insisted that the house was of high standard and well-equipped, but Ms. Kamau disputed this, saying that the house was previously occupied and not newly built as the president had promised.
Despite rejecting the house, Ms. Kamau continued living in a rented mud house in Lanet area, some four kilometres away from Uhuru's gift house.
Officials from State House and provincial administration later handed the house over to another beneficiary.
