Caption: Dr. Ken Kiplagat of Okoth and Kiplagat Advocates. The man many accuse me of working with, in-order to destroy Bob Collymore. Many Twitter influencers and keyboard warriors affiliated to Bharat Thakrar claim that I have been paid by Mike Njeru to destroy Bob Collymore. I have neither met nor interacted with him or Transcend Media Group. He is just a thankless beneficiary of my online activism as his entitled self has not even bothered to call and congratulate me for running a story that had been blacked out by bribed mainstream media journalists for the last three years.
Indeed Mike Njeru probably deserved to lose the tender he clearly won according to findings in a KPMG Audit, because of his inherent stupidity.
Others claim that I'm on the payroll of Ken Kiplagat. They may call him a Moi-era lawyer, or use whatever other analogy conjured by Bob Collymore's cheeky PR team, but the truth is that we cannot tolerate intellectual-property theft in Kenya. And let's give credit where it's due, Ken Kiplagat conceptualised the integrated security system way back in 2001, proposed it and yet some newcomers walk into town and use Government officials to edge him out of a deal.
Is this fair? Shall a scumbag like Bob Collymore from the slum called British Guyana pack heat like an oven door and run Kenya like his personal property? Again, who the hell does this man think he is?
Well, you will all be saddened to know that Standard Group's Managing Editor Joseph Odindo sent a memo to all editors ordering them to kill any story relating to Safaricom and the KPMG Audit. And you wonder why Standard Group is posting losses? Because of such idiots in our media, using their positions to undermine the flow of information, for the benefit of bribes and jobs to relatives.
Back to the headline which I'm sure brought many of you here.
Ken Kiplagat is not just your ordinary Joe. He is the real McCoy, who was admitted to the bar in 1989 so he is definitely Under-50. He is also a former Director at Communications Commissions of Kenya (CCK) now Communications Authority of Kenya at the turn of the century, where he allocated himself frequencies, which he sells to media owners.
But his most prominent company is Tetra Radio Limited which bid for a $5.2 million (Sh447 million at current exchange rates) contract to operate and supply a digital radio communication system for the Kenya Police.
The company won the bid in 2002 to supply a commercial trunk radio network, which would operate on the UHF band. Five years later , the system was yet to be supplied following wrangles between Tetra Radio and the Communications Commission of Kenya (now the Communications Authority of Kenya, CAK), prompting the regulator to cancel the tender in 2007.
Tetra Radio went to the High Court the following year to have CAK reinstate the tender and stop the regulator from allocating the frequencies to another entity.
The company won the case, and by a judgment dated June 24, 2011, CAK’s decision to cancel the tender was reversed and the regulator was prohibited from utilising, activating or allocating the frequency range awarded to Tetra Radio.
CAK Director General Francis Wangusi wouldn't keep quiet he made media reports and even presented his report to parliament accounting that Tetra Radio was incapable of implementing the security system due to lack of proper technical and financial support. A company that operates with close to 45 million pounds (equivalent to 6.75B ksh.) and that had a good reputation in Spain, Austria, The United Kingdom, Iraq, Poland among others was incapable of setting up security systems in Kenya? Isn't this ironical?
After Tetra was successfully eliminated new players came into the game.
Huawei, ZTE and Safaricom were determined to win the security surveillance system. It was a battle that saw this three giant electronic and communication companies mire in controversy and morphed to feature bitter corporate and diplomacy wars that ended in court.
Huawei who were so much determined to hit the contract would do anything to get it and it is at this point that they arranged for ZTE managers to be deported back to their country being conscious of the fact that Safaricom was incapable of providing security and communication surveillance on their own. This was made possible through Office of the President and the Attorney General Githu Muigai . The deportation orders were signed by the then Interior C.S Joseph ole Lenku and ZTE was seen out of the competition.
After the court ruling, Safaricom won the tender to supply, manage install and maintain security surveillance and communication systems.
Safaricom then in June 2014 confirmed that Chinese giant telecom Huawei would provide infrastructure support for 15 billion, but then billed the Kenya Government for Kshs. 45 Billion. Outright theft.
So who is Ken Kiplagat? On 16th January 2004, patrons at the Fairview Hotel in Nairobi were shocked after a brawl broke out. Ken Kiplagat had slapped the life out of Gideon Moi, the then MP of Baringo Central after the latter went to ask for "dad's" property and money that perhaps was given to Kiplagat in trust.
He is also famous (in the right circles) for his divorce case with wife Catherine Jelugat Kiplagat who in court documents, revealed that her ex-husband is worth a whopping $2 Billion. She successfully pursued a court-case and the ruling is hereby attached for your perusal.
This is now high-level politics, and information only privy to those who know Nairobi well, who have been in Nairobi, and not the freshers like Ory Okolloh, Dennis Itumbi, who just came to Nairobi the other day, from their respective locations one being in diaspora studying and the other being rural Kenya.
Amongst the properties Mrs. Kiplagat is eyeing is Shares in Tetra Radio Limited, Toads Media Group Limited, Bond Conservancy Limited, Simba Radio Limited, Southern Cross Engineering Limited, Naivasha Cottages Limited plus a split in properties in various locations in Kenya including two houses in Green Park Naivasha Great Rift Valley Lodge, 40 acres of land in Kabarak, 100 acres of land in Kabarak Menengai West, a house in Eldoret near Statehouse, 50 acres of land in Eldoret, a House in Milimani Nakuru, a villa in Vipingo Ridge Kilifi, and a house in Kensington UK.
In cash, the court declared that in various accounts, there were different amounts of money including Kshs. 600 Million, US$ 2 Million, Kshs. 1 Billion, and Kshs. 87 Million that were proceeds of the sale of Simba Radio to KTN.
Toads Media Limited was the company that Ken Kiplagat used to allocate himself over 10 radio frequencies, which he had disposed off to various radio stations that you hear today, for a cool sum of US$ 4 Million.
The wife admitted in court that her ex-husband and baby-daddy was having an affair with another woman Milly Cherono whom they had a child with.
Another 4 women listed as respondents are also said to have been in relationships with Ken Kiplagat who then purchased properties under their names. For the record, they include Casey Burns, Jaqueline Kosgei, Beatrice Kosgei and Sheila Jebet Amdany.
Pussy will be the end of some men. Rest in peace Jacob Juma who was last spotted in the company of an unknown woman that probably sold him out to the guy who smoked him. Attached: Divorce proceedings between Ken Kiplagat and Catherine Jelugat Kiplagat.