AYOUB Posted December 1, 2003 Hotel Evicts Somali Delegates Over Bill The East African Standard (Nairobi) November 30, 2003 Posted to the web December 1, 2003 Dominic Wabala Nairobi Four senior Somali delegates attending the on-going Inter-governmental Authority on Development (Igad) conference were on Friday night thrown out of a Nairobi hotel for non-payment of bills. Minister Abubakar Abdi, General Mohammed Said, Colonel Abdullahi Abdi and Major General Ahmed Abdisugulle were denied services and their rooms locked after they failed to pay a Sh1.2 million outstanding bill. The delegates, who have been staying at Hilton Hotel, protested and declined pay up when asked to do so by the hotel management. Consequently, the delegates insisted that the bill be combined with an outstanding Sh5 million to be paid by the Igad Secretariat. When the hotel management rejected their request, the angry delegates accompanied went to the Central Police Station and demanded to be arrested. The group declined to return to the hotel and sort out the matter with the Hilton's senior managers. It was only after the intervention of a special envoy to Igad, Ambassador Bethwell Kiplagat and the authority's political and diplomatic liaison officer, Mr James Kiboi, that the delegates agreed to leave the police station. Efforts to get a comment from the Hilton management on the incident were futile. Igad, which is hosting the delegates in the country to discuss the way forward for the Somali crisis, has been footing all hotel and medical bills for them. Most of the delegates are housed at the Kenya College of Communications Technology, Mbagathi, while some of their seniors are booked in various five-star hotels in the city. Early this year, some delegates were thrown out of Eldoret hotels, where the first phase of the peace negotiations flopped. ------------------------------------------ These spoiled brats who have kicked thousands out of their homes deserve this humbling experience like no one!! . Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
