Standard journalist Geoffrey Mosoku has been suspended by the Standard Media Group for writing a story alleging that ODM leader Raila Odinga’s Range Rover had been seized by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) over tax evasion.
Mosoku revealed that the luxury car, registration KCS 002D has been seized as Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) intensified crackdown on 444 cars thought to have either not been paid for duty or were stolen.
Kahawa Tungu also learns that Mosoku served as a sacrificial lamp after a number of Cabinet Secretaries met, contemplating of withdrawing ads from the Standard group over what they termed as disparaging stories.
The meeting was chaired by interior CS Dr Fred Matiang’i, who has been mentioned in several scandal including the Ruaraka land saga.
Health CS Sicily Kariuki also wanted the scribe out, after being adversely mentioned in the Managed Equipment Service (MES) equipment for counties, where the initial annual contract from was doubled from Ksh95 million to Ksh200 million for each county.
Jubilee Insurance CEO Julius Kipngetich is also said to have been part of the cartels, since he does not like him due to previous stories he did implicating the underwriter. Kipngetich sits in Standard board.
Previously, Mosoku wrote a story about how Jubilee Insurance was fighting for tenders with the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), a story that did not augur well with Kipngetich.
The story entailed a Ksh900 million scandal between NHIF and Jubilee, that was under probe by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) which carted away documents that include the signed contract, invoices and vouchers from NHIF.
The main story done by Mosoku was pulled down, and instead a ‘lighter’ one uploaded on the Standard Newspaper website.
Mosoku, a very prolific political reporter, was poached in December 2012 from Radio Africa Group where he was a writer with the Star newspaper.
In August 2015, Mosoku caused drama at the Mombasa Road-based media house after he declined to sign a retrenchment letter demanding to be given enough reasons for his sacking.
It is said since then, he has been a main target of the management, despite having a clean file with the company.
