By our Reporter from Geneva
A battery of Kenya journalists who had been taken to Geneva City in Switzerland for the International Labor Organization annual general meetings by Francis Atwoli the Secretary General of Kenya’s Central Organizations of Trade Union (COTU) for two days now have been thrown out of the Hotel where they have been accommodated since their arrival and their personal effects confiscated by the hotel management due to what they say is “aloofness” by Atwoli to settle the bills and have vowed to block Atwoli’s attempt to leave the country until he pays the accrued costs.
The hotel spokesperson Martin Karlson says that their attempts to get money from Atwoli has bore no fruit resulting to them locking the journalists out of their hotel saying theirs is a business which needs to be respected and serviced.
“Its not the Kenya journalists fault, we locked them out and confiscated their personal effects as one way of bargaining as we try to recover our money as we are made to believe that they wanted to leave the country as they claimed that Atwoli has abandoned them and ILO is ignorant of their presence here in Geneva saying it was Kenya’s arrangement” Mr. Karlson added.
One female journalist who spoke on condition of not being named because she is married says that their trouble began when the female journalists refused to have sex with some section of COTU officials resulting to them being abandoned.
“We are appealing to the Embassy here and the Ministry of Labor and Foreign Affairs to come to our aid as we do not have our own passports, when we asked Atwoli,he sarcastically told us that “mtaka cha mvunguni sharti tuiname “,we are married and we never came here for sexual escapades” the weeping journalists said.
Another male journalist lamented that the allowances they were promised that they were to be paid, they have not been paid despite some sources saying Atwoli had there money.
“He pleaded with our bosses to bring us here only to subject us to all these, we appeal to Kenya Government to intervene speedily otherwise we do not know what to do” he said.
Efforts to get comment from Atwoli were fruitless while when we contacted ILO headquarters a lady who never wanted to be mentioned said that they never invited the said journalists and that should be the case of Atwoli to handle.
“Please we only handle our invitees, not tourists and joy riders” she said finally.
Kenya Foreign Affairs Assistant Minister Richard Onyonka when contacted admitted of being aware of the case and promised to consult the Labour Ministry .
“We will assist them, but laid down Kenya government rules must be followed” he assured.
This is very unfortunate just in case it is true but the truth will be known by the end of the week but my opinion is that this article is written and sponsored by a Kisumu based journalist who did not get the opportunity to be part of the Geneva meeting and is jealous with one of his colleague who was part of the Geneva team. The said journalist (aged over 60yrs) is working in cahoots with some kuj officials who are not in good books with Brother Atwoli.
So Atwoli is a thigh monger of this calibre,the witter of this article should get in touch with me so that i tell him how Atwoli has ruined peoples homes by messing with their wives -more so young men.
Bwana ya msichana ya Rajab Mwondi wa zamani
Omyango, I guess, is an assumed name. The comments are written by a Nairobi based journapist who is well known to havw -wefwctws in the art of manipulation and perha-s. He did so in an attempt to attract cash reward from my brother Atwoli.
The artice implied that I am the one who wrote the Geneva report because I am only one jounralist who is ageing over 60 years. But this corrupt and manipulator of the highest order mised the point.
Persomally I am in good book with Atwoli, andI had never been a member of KUJ, nor interested in traveling abroad, as I have done so many time, so many years ago and many times, even long before erratic journalist was born.
So you can make some kind of intelligence guesswork about how cheap is the commentator in this context. Tell him to learn new tricks of attracting cash hand out as his old trick some to have worn out. The man had phoned me four times in connections with the same Geneva story, but I am in Kisumu and never left here for the last ten years. Readers should ignore such sycophantic outbursts and even try to find out the author of the article in question fom Jaluoi Dot Kom before jumping into malicious comment against me.