President Ruto’s Weston Hotel has emerged as a major beneficiary of government contracts.
President William Ruto’s Weston Hotel has won more government contracts than any other city hotel since the Kenya Kwanza administration rose to power in September 2022, disclosures from the Public Procurement Information Portal show.
A significant number of the listed government deals that Weston Hotel has won came after Dr Ruto became President.
The hotel, which is located along Nairobi’s Lang’ata Road, has so far been linked to disclosures of 37 tenders to supply various state corporations, agencies and counties with services valued at Sh57.9 million. This is more than any other similar facility in Nairobi offering hotel and conference services, according to the official filings available at the moment. The portal shows only six contracts valued at a total of Sh1,011,000 that the hotel won from State-linked entities before September 2022, with the oldest listed being to Machakos County Assembly dated August 6, 2021.
The disclosures are, however, not complete as some of the suppliers and procuring entities are yet to update their details in the portal as required. Further details now needed for the publicly available filings include a list of shareholders and directors — as part of the requirement of the financing deal that Kenya has with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A big chunk of the money that Weston Hotel received came from the ICT Authority, which paid Sh43.2 million for provision of catering services during the month-long Connected Africa Summit that ran from April 12 to May 13 this year.
The Connected Africa Summit 2024, opened by President William Ruto, took place at Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi.
Besides President William Ruto, other listed directors of Weston Hotel are Mrs Chebet Rael Kimeto (Mrs Rachel Ruto), who is the First Lady, and his daughter Ms Charlene Chelagat Ruto.
The president has previously publicly confessed to owning the 117-bed capacity hotel, with details published in the procurement portal now affirming his interest in the hotel.
Weston has won far more contracts than other hotels in Nairobi, with only Fairview coming close with 15 contracts. Mombasa Road-based Hilton Garden, which is loved by MPs for their committee meetings, is the other major supplier to public entities.
The public disclosure shows that Machakos County Assembly has been Weston’s biggest customer, giving the hotel 21 contracts.
Other State corporations that have procured the services of Weston Hotel include Kenya Medical Research Institute which has 11 contracts and Kenya Investment Authority with three contracts. Most of these businesses were done after Dr Ruto became president.
As part of the austerity measures, the government had discouraged state corporations from holding events in hotels.
Although not yet disclosed in the portal, Members of Parliament have also frequently held meetings at Weston Hotel.
President Ruto’s disclosure as a director of Weston as well as business interests he has with public entities aligns with recent developments where public officials are expected to be transparent in their dealing with government.
President Ruto’s Cabinet approved the Conflict-of-interest Bill, 2023 with radical sanctions to discourage public officials from doing business with government to amass wealth, a corrupt practice that has minted overnight millionaires from officers whose salaries do not match their extravagant lifestyles.
However, the Senators watered down the Bill by quashing provisions that prohibited government officers from seeking tenders with public entities and others that required regular declaration of wealth, including of their spouses and children, to curb unexplained accumulation of wealth. The Bill is now back to the National Assembly.
State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohammed did not immediately respond to Nation.Africa enquiries on the matter.
Hotels linked to politicians and government officials have also raised conflict of interest questions. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua after presiding over the re-opening of the Sh3.5 billion Tree Tops Hotel, which is owned by his sons, said he had warned them against doing business with the government.
“My sons have every right to invest here. I had warned them (his sons) not to do business with the government to avoid conflict of interest,” said Gachagua in an interview with Inooro TV.
Treasury officials had promised the IMF to review the process to align the country’s asset declarations and conflict of interest legal framework with international standards and best practices.
In a letter of intent to the IMF boss, the former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u and the Central Bank of Kenya Governor Kamau Thugge said the Conflict-of-interest bill if enacted in its “current form” would require high-level officials to first, file information regarding disclosure of interests—including financial, contractual and corporate—and assets beneficially owned.
The Bill, said the Kenyan officials, would also require online publication of declarations of assets, including assets beneficially owned, and conflict of interest — except confidential data for personal and family safety and privacy reasons such as account numbers, personal identification numbers.
Indeed, publishing of the public procurement information was part of the structural benchmarks in the ongoing Extended Fund Facility and Extended Credit Facility arrangements that Kenya has with the IMF.
Kenya was initially expected to start publishing beneficial ownership information, or details related to the identity of individuals with a stake of more than 25 per cent by the end of June 2021.
However, this was delayed with the government explaining that it did not yet have the right legal framework to reveal such data.
The Weston Hotel has been embroiled in significant controversy due to allegations surrounding the acquisition of the land on which it stands.
The primary issue revolves around claims that the land was illegally obtained from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, but the hotel's owners, including the current shareholders, have defended their acquisition, claiming they purchased the land in good faith.
It is not known how much Dr Ruto paid to acquire the land and build the 117-bed capacity hotel, but it is estimated to run into hundreds of millions.
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