Tourism CS Najib Balala on Monday lashed out at those calling for his resignation over the death of 10 rhinos at Tsavo East National Park.
Speaking during a press conference in Mombasa, Balala affirmed that he would not resign as the only person who had the power to remove him from office was President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"Those calling for my resignations are just sideshows.I don't want to talk about rhinos now but I want to tell them to go to hell. Only Uhuru has the authority of appointing and firing me. I can only tell them [sic] they can go to hell.
"No one is going to intimidate me as the president who appointed me knows I have the capacity to run the Ministry," he asserted.
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He added that there was a group of individuals who were determined to dismantle the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) for personal gain.
"This is an agenda they have to destroy the KWS so that they can be able to take over these parks and start using emotions of international people to raise funds for their exclusive lifestyle that is not accountable in this country but I am going to stop it once and for all," he added.
Accompanied by Environment CS Keriako Tobiko, Balala was among the officials from the national government who had paid a courtesy visit to Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho.
Joho noted that the meeting served as an icebreaker as they discussed matters on urban renewal and regeneration of Mombasa.
"For the last four years, I did not enjoy being a governor but now I feel that we are able to make a big difference and enjoy our offices. We are here to basically extend the handshake which has done magic," he observed.
On his part, Tobiko conveyed that the national government would not provide solutions for Mombasa problems, rather working together with the county in the spirit of partnership.
[caption caption="Najib Balala (L), Hassan Joho and Keriako Tobiko on 30/7/2018"]
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"From what I was reading, I thought this city was sinking but now that I'm here I'm amazed by how clean this city is. I urge the media to be constructive in their reporting and also acknowledge the efforts made but still correct us where we are wrong," he stated.
CS Balala, who last week suspended six KWS officials, has been on the receiving end as a section of Kenyans demanded he takes personal responsibility for the deaths of 10 black rhinos in a botched translocation process.
[caption caption="Balala and his team during the meeting in Joho's office on 30/7/2018"]
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