Pauline Njoroge’s Past Facebook Post Comes Back to Haunt Her as Appointment to Tourism Authority is Revoked

Tourism CS Najib Balala has revoked the appointment of Pauline Njoki Njoroge to the Tourism Regulatory Authority.

This comes a day after her appointment as a board member of the authority caused a stir online over her past Facebook post questioning the economic viability of Nairobi National Park.  

Balala in a statement on Saturday said he was not aware of Njoki’s past negative comment about the park while appointing her to the position on Friday.

“I am revoking Pauline Njoroge’s appointment as a board member of the Tourism Regulatory Authority because we have just seen what she had tweeted in the past that Nairobi National Park was useless. We do not want to be associated with such people and such thinking,” noted Balala.

Balala, who has since replaced Njoki with KTN’s Najma Ismail, thanked Kenyans on social media for highlighting the matter.

Njoki’s Facebook post dated October 2019 read: “By the way, how much revenue does the Nairobi National Park bring to this country. Isn’t there much more that can be done with it that can add more value? The only selling point of that park is that ‘It’s the only national park in a capital city in the world’ beyond that glamorous title, that else does it offer?”

“The orphanage and the nature walk make economic sense…But the park? It does not make sense that in a congested city like Nairobi we can afford to have acres and acres of land in the name of a park when the is literally bursting at the seams with people…We even have to hold discussions on rerouting the SGR so as to have a park that is economically redundant!”

Njoki works at NEPAD as a communication officer and is one of the fierce defenders of President Uhuru’s administration on social media.