- It is claimed that acting out of fear of being arrested and threats from the county officers that they would close down the restaurant, the owner offered to give Ksh. 250,000 to buy his freedom, sources say the team from City Hall then agreed to the offer. The proprietor did not have the cash and had to write a cheque in the name of one of his employees who rushed to the bank to withdraw the cash
By The Weekly Vision
There was drama at a Japanese-owned restaurant last week known as Chekafe Restaurant after rogue Nairobi City County officers from the Department of Health stormed the restaurant in a commando style demanding a whopping Ksh. 2.5m in bribes from the owner. The restaurant is located along Kauria Close off Muthangari Road in Nairobi.
The Japanese investor was caught unawares when the team stormed his business premises causing commotion when they demanded to arrest him over claims that members of his staff were operating on forged food handling certificates. The team from City Hall was led by one Mwongelia, they dismissed the receipts presented to them as generated through the county’s portal system alleging they were fake.
Before the proprietor could contact City Hall to confirm how the receipts generated from their portal could turn out to be fake, area MCA called the Japanese and ordered him to give Mwongelia Ksh. 2.5m failure to which he would be arrested by DCI and charged with forging government documents. Mwongelia at one point invoked the name of the Chief Officer Health Tom Michira whom he claimed had ordered the operations to have the Japanese arrested and the restaurant closed.
It is claimed that, acting out of fear of being arrested and threats from the county officers that they would close down the restaurant, he offered to give Ksh. 250,000 to buy his freedom. Sources say the team from City Hall then agreed to the offer. The proprietor did not have the cash and had to write a cheque in the name of one of his employees who rushed to the bank to withdraw the cash.
The employee was accompanied by one of the rogue county staff to the bank that then brought back the money and handed it over to Mwongelia. Upon receipt of the Ksh. 250,000, Mwongelia and her team drove off to a safe location where they shared the loot. The matter leaked out after the team failed on how to share the loot with claims that the MCA was demanding to pocket Ksh. 200,000 leaving the county staff with only Ksh. 50,000.
It should be known that applications for food handling certificates are done online through the county’s portal and payments are done online with receipts generated online. Due to a backlog in printing the certificates, City Hall has not been able to print and issue certificates and allows applicants to use the online generated receipts. However, rogue city hall officers have been taking advantage of the same and extorting huge amounts of money from unsuspecting business people.
