Nyali MP Mohamed Ali surprised many over the weekend after he allegedly revealed to activist Boniface Mwangi that he was pocketing a salary of Sh. 75,000 a month out of a Sh.680,000 minimum net salary which he receives monthly from parliament.
The first time legislator allegedly told the activist a mortgage and legal fees from the various suits was facing had taken a toll on his salary.
ALI AND JOHO FAMILY
When Nyali MP Mohamed Ali announced his bid to seek the Nyali parliamentary seat in the August 2017 polls, many saw it as a confirmation after months of speculation.
Graffiti paintings around the sub-county had already hinted that someone was compelling Ali to seek the seat despite that; the investigative journalist had publicly avoided commenting on the issue.
Ali had long been linked to NASA leader Raila Odinga and Mombasa governor Ali Hassan Joho during his journalism career earning him criticism from Jubilee allies among them the former statehouse director of diaspora communications Dennis Itumbi.
Ali soon hit the ground running after announcing he would be seeking the seat on an ODM party ticket.
However, Ali’s bid and relationship with the Joho family was strained by the entry Joho’s cousin Said Abdalla Alias Saido who was also seeking the seat on an Orange Democratic Party ticket.
Saido’s entry further complicated matters for Ali and what ensued was weeks of public confrontations between Ali’s and Saido’s supporters.
One infamous incident was when a clash ensued during a NASA mega rally at the Tononoka grounds in April 2017 with some rally-goers pelting him with water bottles when he attempted to speak during the rally.
Ali later accused Saido of inciting his supporters against him but Saido’s camp denied those allegations.
Fast forward to the ODM party primaries, Ali was floored by Saido who ultimately clinched the party ticket, however, Ali accused the party of manipulating the primaries in Saido’s favor.
“The Nyali primaries were marred with such deep and blatant irregularities that clearly favored a Saido victory. Voter bribery, intimidation, ballot stuffing and general interference in the election by Said Abdallah and his relative, current Mombasa governor Ali Hassan Joho,” Mohammed Ali was quoted at the time.
MOHAMED ALI GOES SOLO
Soon after the primaries, Ali decided to go vie as an independent candidate finding solace in Joho’s Arch-enemy, former Mombasa senator Hassan Omar who was at time challenging Joho for the Mombasa gubernatorial seat.
However, Ali was careful not to openly show that he was no longer a supporter of NASA .
All his campaign posters had a photo of the NASA leader Raila Odinga.
Ali floored 13 candidates among them Joho’s cousin forcing Saido to concede early defeat in a chaotic election that saw Ali and Saido’s supporters clash at the Freretown Social hall forcing police to fire into the air.
ALI VS JOHO, ENTER JUBILEE
Ali’s problems were not yet over as Nyali voter Daniel Omondi filed a petition at the Mombasa high court seeking to nullify Ali’s election on various grounds among them election malpractices.
A few weeks later during a press conference held at the Lotus hotel in Mombasa, Ali launched an attack claiming that the Joho family was behind the petition and they had been going around the constituency trying to coerce elderly women to record statements that they had been involved in election malpractices with an aim of using the evidence in court.
Ali was soon summoned by police in regards to the alleged election malpractices spending 30 minutes recording a statement at the Mombasa DCI headquarters, however, he accused police of siding with his rivals in an attempt to build a non-existent case against him.
“They will not succeed. There is no case. Someone is cooking evidence. Police are involved,” Ali said.
Though Ali did attend Joho’s second swearing-in at the Mama Ngina grounds in Mombasa, relations between him and the family remained strained with word moving round that he had joined his former ally Hassan Omar who had by then decided to back the Jubilee Party.
In Mid October Ali was spotted at a Jubilee rally in Nyali and later a Jubilee event held at statehouse Mombasa with many speculating that he had since crossed over to Jubilee.
Ali’s move sparked sharp criticism with many accusing him of riding on Nasa for political mileage.
However, Ali soon defended himself arguing that he only welcomed the president to Nyali as he was willing to work with anyone who had the interests of the people of Nyali at heart.
Ali forged close ties with deputy president William Ruto and he acted as Ruto’s host whenever he visited his constituency.
WORLD CUP SAGA
At the height of the mega corruption scandals mid this year, Ali surprised many when he named 10 individuals who he wanted investigated over the scandal.
Some of the individuals hit back with Kirinyaga governor Anne Waiguru suing the investigative journalist over what she termed as defamatory remarks.
No sooner had the dust settled on the scandal than Ali was caught up in another scandal where a section of Kenyan legislators traveled to Russia to watch the 2018 World Cup using taxpayers money.
Mohamed Ali and the legislators, however, insisted they were on official duty as they were benchmarking on how to prepare and host such games in the country.
This was despite that only one official from the Football Kenya Federation was sponsored by parliament for the trip.
As soon as Ali returned back to the country back from Russia, another scandal soon caught up with him.
This was after he called the former KPLC boss Ben Chumo who was appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade for vetting on the Salaries and Remuneration Commision Chair job a corrupt man owing to charges such as the acquisition of public property and aiding of a felony which Chumo was facing.
Chumo who was later rejected by the MP’s for the post had just been released on bail over the charges a few days before he appeared before the panel for vetting.
Kipkelion East Joseph Kirui Limo who is the chair of the committee request Ali to withdraw the statement terming it as incriminating since Mr Chumo was just a suspect.
WILL ALI EXPOSE CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT?
Ali who now claims that he is the only non-corrupt Mp is set to expose the corruption in government through an investigative documentary ‘Dunia Gunia”.
The first term Mp who has accused parliamentary journalists of being corrupt claims media houses have refused to air his expose and is further calling on the public and civil society organizations to help him expose corruption in government.
Ali has further distanced himself from the Deputy president who was earlier in the year named as the most corrupt politician by an IPSOS Synovate survey
However, it is well remembered that after the chaos that rocked the aftermath August 8th polls, Ali claimed he would produce an investigative series exposing the forces behind police brutality.
The investigative series never saw the light of day.
Additional reporting Dennis Mwangi
