CORD threatens to impeach Uhuru as payment row rages

By RAWLINGS OTIENO

Kenya: CORD leaders have argued there is no justification for payment of Sh1.4 billion to Anglo-Leasing companies.

They said the contracts were illegally procured and that Kenya should not commit to fraudulent dealings.

The Opposition also threatened to impeach President Uhuru Kenyatta over his directive to the Treasury to pay the debt. Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale asked why the Jubilee government is not implementing what was in the report when Uhuru chaired the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC).

Fleece taxpayers

In 2006, Uhuru, then the Opposition leader, chaired the PAC, which authored the report that described the more than Sh50 billion contracts as a system hatched by a few individuals to continually fleece taxpayers.

Khalwale claimed Anglo Leasing companies were owned by two Indians and two Kenyans, whose names are in the report which Uhuru submitted when he was the PAC chairman.

“We are the representatives of the people, and if he goes on doing this he will be the first President in Kenya to be impeached,” warned Khalwale.

In particular, the Opposition coalition dared the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to authorise the payments and face censure Motion in Parliament and Senate.

Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo castigated the move to pay the two companies, terming Uhuru’s authorisation to pay as unconstitutional.

“This is will be the final onslaught to bad governance. Our people cannot keep on suffering because of a few individuals at Harambee House. If Rotich pays this Anglo-Leasing money then, we will jail you, humiliate you and recommend that you are hanged at Uhuru park in public, because this is people’s money and you are the accounting officer,” said Jakoyo.

He went on; “The President has money; if he wants to pay with his own money then he can go ahead and pay, but not the public money.”

In a parked political rally at the famous Kamkunji grounds in Kibera, Jakoyo tore into Uhuru’s declaration that Kenya has no option but to pay, saying the President does not have any mandate in law to authorise the release of money without passing through the Parliament.

Awendo MP Jared K’Opiyo asked how Kenyans can be sure that the money Uhuru is directing to be paid would not benefit some few people in the Government if the faces behind the Anglo Leasing are not made public.

K’Opiyo argued that the Jubilee government had failed to be transparent and is not keen on fighting the ghost of corruption and impunity.

His counterpart Suna East MP Junet Mohamed claimed that the Government was rewarding those who politically helped Jubilee fund its campaigns ahead of last year’s General Election.

Mohamed accused the Jubilee administration of launching aggressive attacks on reforms.