Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala is reported to have stormed the Mombasa Beach Hotel following complaints that the hospitality facility was infested with bedbugs.
CS Balala is said to have received the concerns from a section of guests who also lamented that food served at the financially crippled hotel was bad.
According to the Tourism Minister, the Mombasa Beach Hotel is suffering a Sh30 Million debt and is now on the brink of collapse, with the alternative being to sell it off to a willing entrepreneur.
However, acting Chief Executive Officer of Tourism Finance Corporation Jonah Orumoi, blamed government departments for the deplorable state at the hotel, asserting that some ministries and county governments owed the facility huge debts in unpaid bills.
Mr Orumoi highlighted that the Mombasa County government owed the hotel Sh7 Million, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was yet to settle a Sh6 Million bill while the National Treasury had an overdue debt of Sh3.2 Million, the Nation reports.
The TFC boss claimed that following the concerns raised by Mr Balala, the corporation’s board visited the hotel and discovered that there were no bedbugs and guests were being served fresh food.
However, Mr Orumoi disclosed that the Kenya Safari Lodges and Hotels (KSLH), which runs the beach hotel, had not paid its workers’salaries amounting to Sh13 Million.
“During our impromptu visit, we discovered that the KSLH had not paid the 240 employees their salaries for February and March,” he explained.
TFC owns the Mombasa Beach Hotel, Ngulia Safari Lodge and Voi Safari Lodge, while KSLH is charged with the responsibility of running the hotel and the lodges.
