Government Now Wants to Purchase Houses and Luxury Cars for Visiting Presidents and Dignitaries.
The State is now planning to purchase guest houses and luxury vehicles for visiting Heads of State and dignitaries, in an effort to reduce reliance on ritzy hotels for visitors.
Anthony Mutisya 
The acquisition of the homes, according to the Foreign Affairs ministry, will ensure ready accommodation, security, and privacy for the 'VIP State guests.'
"The ministry seeks to acquire suitable guesthouses for high-level dignitaries visiting the country. This will cut costs of hotel accommodation and ensure there is always availability of accommodation and reduce dependency on hotels," Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo says in a report to Parliament.
"It also ensures security and confidentiality." Omamo adds that her ministry requires ceremonial or protocol vehicles, complete with provisions for flag pendants, to be kept on standby at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) for dignitaries' movement during visits.
"Further, the ministry intends to acquire protocol/ceremonial vehicles-Specifics for vehicles to include provision for flag pendants," she says.
According to the ministry, the current fleet of vehicles it owns consists of old cars that are expensive to maintain.
"The ministry has a large fleet of old vehicles hence increased maintenance costs. In addition, unlike in other international airports, JKIA does not have protocol cars stationed within the tarmac area/airside to facilitate VVIPs and VIPs on arrival and departure (boarding and disembarking),” added the CS.
"There is also inadequate dedicated transport for senior staff, local errands and to ferry staff and goods which hampers service delivery of the ministry."
This comes after the Foreign Affairs Ministry recently announced that it would stop renting property and instead buy in order to reduce its high rental costs, which are reportedly close to Ksh.3 billion per year.
“Most missions do not own properties hence end up leasing. Rents and leases account for approximately 20 percent (Sh3.4 billion) out of the total budget (Sh17 billion) in Kenyan Missions abroad," the report notes.
