Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki and his controversial First Lady Lucy Kibaki on Tuesday ordered for eight top-of-the-range custom made cars to be returned to the dealers, as a means of austerity measures announced by the Minister of Finance on the purchasing of fuel guzzlers in 2009 budget statement.
The minister had proposed that ministers and other senior government officials should return to the use of cost effective 1800cc vehicles.
According to a statement released by the Presidential Press Service, the president had made the decision to return the cars as a way of tightening the belts with the rest of Kenyans in the current hard economic hardships. "Following the instructions by their Excellencies, the eight vehicles were this morning delivered to the dealers,” said the statement.
An employee of DT Dobie – the Mercedes Benz car dealer in
The president is also thought to have made the decision based on the fact that the cars were bought without his consent, our reporter said. In
Meanwhile, the decision of the president to reject the cars did not go down well with some ministers and other senior government officials. A few have voiced their displeasure at the finance minister’s directive. One such case is the Minister for Housing Soita Shitanda, who had referred to 1800cc cars as "those for teenagers."
Source: AHU – Raymond Irambo