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State House disowns Keter over weighbridge drama


Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter has landed trouble again — this time, for invoking President Uhuru Kenyatta’s name even when on the wrong side of the law.

Mr Keter was filmed threatening and insulting police officers and workers at the Gilgil weighbridge on the Nairobi-Nakuru road.

Mr Keter was accompanied by his URP colleague, nominated MP Sunjeev ‘Sonia’ Kaur Birdi, whose truck, which was fitted with a drilling rig, had been detained because it lacked an exemption permit as required by law

The expletive-laden rant was recorded by one of the officers using a cellphone.

Blogger Robert Alai posted the video on YouTube Sunday morning, provoking furious reactions from Kenyans on social media.

CONDEMNING INCIDENT

The Director of Public Prosecution, State House, the Transport and Infrastructure ministry and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission also weighed in, all condemning the incident.

Mr Keter was accompanied by his URP colleague, nominated MP Sunjeev ‘Sonia’ Kaur Birdi, whose truck, which was fitted with a drilling rig, had been detained because it lacked an exemption permit as required by law.

Mr Keter appeared to have been angered by the officers’ refusal to release the truck and failure to answer calls supposedly made by State House Comptroller Lawrence Lenayapa, the National Assembly’s Administration and National Security Committee chairman, Mr Asman Kamama and Rift Valley Regional Commissioner Osman Warfa.

He said: “You know my worry is…let me tell you. We are the government. The State House controller anawapigia simu (is calling you), and no one picks?”

STATE HOUSE

He later warns in the clip: “When the President calls, my friend, you have to respect. Whether you are a mother f****r or whatever. State House inapiga simu na unasema huja release gari?”

The MP then said he would see the President himself over the incident.

However, State House immediately distanced itself from the matter, saying Mr Keter’s claims about the officers based there “are untrue and amount to nothing more than name-dropping.”

“The Presidency commends the public officers who resisted the apparent intimidation,” State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu said in a statement.