Four members of the Parliament’s Agricultural Committee have said they will on Tuesday lay bare a ‘dossier on bribery’ believed to have influenced their colleagues to alter the findings of a report on the sugar sector.
MPs Fredrick Outa (Nyando) and Benjamin Washiali (Mumias East) have separately told The Standard on Saturday that millions of shillings were paid to members to ensure an earlier draft was altered.
Three of their colleagues, who on realising some members had been compromised, stopped attending meetings.
“We have a planned meeting for Tuesday to spill the beans on what transpired; it is a shame where we find ourselves as members of that committee,” said Outa.
The Nyando MP added that he was deeply saddened that even members from sugar growing regions did not care about their electorate, implying that they should at least have supported an earlier draft report.
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The committee sat last weekend and resolved to strike out names and recommendations thought to hurt some powerful individuals that amassed wealth at the expense of the local sugar sector.
Equally frustrated with the about-turn in the committee is Mr Washiali, in whose constituency Mumias Sugar Company is situated, who said he will fight his colleagues to the ‘bitter end’ over corruption.
“It has been a long war that I am fighting, and will continue to the floor of the House when this rubbish is tabled,” he said in reference to the final report of the committee on the sugar crisis.
Washiali, who sat at the last weekend meeting for only a few hours, threw in the towel on realising how the debate had shifted, and joined Deputy President William Ruto’s tour of Western Kenya to witness the retirement of Kakamega Catholic Bishop Phillip Sulumeti, and the consecration of Bishop Joseph Obanyi.
It is also emerging that the same corruption claims may have delayed completion of the report, which in ordinary parliamentary guidelines should not have taken more than 60 calendar days only to end up 18 months since the petition from a farmers’ representative Joseph Barasa was received in August 2013.
Failure to have the report concluded in the stipulated time introduces another major challenge with sweeping implications as the House is blocked from debate on the findings, according to the Standing Orders. That technicality alone means that Parliament may never get the chance to deliberate on crisis in the local sugar sector which affects nearly every single household in Kenya. Instead, the recommendations will be adopted as is, if the Standing Orders are followed to the letter. We could not immediately confirm whether the Speaker, who has on several occasions, demanded that the report be tabled in whichever form, could bend the rules and allow the House to ventilate on the matter.
Members of the Agriculture Committee converged at Nairobi’s Windsor Country Club last Friday to adopt and pass the final report, amid a major rift that saw bitter opponents flip-flop on their hitherto tough positions before mellowing. “The change of heart among my colleagues was very disheartening; I personally believe they were compromised,” another MP who sought anonymity for fear of victimisation said.
A last minute decision to have the meeting take place in Nairobi, rather than Mombasa as earlier planned, has also been linked to intense lobbying ahead of the caucus.
Washiali, who was beaten up and his fingers nearly severed in a protest by warring factions in Mumias two weeks ago, claimed that by Thursday he had not been informed of the change of venue.
A few members opposed to altering the findings, however, stayed through meeting, fighting for what they felt was a fair and thorough investigation even as the majority had their way.
Coming out of the retreat that cost the taxpayer Sh2.4 million over the two days, MPs from the committee passed by a majority vote a self-disqualification in investigating the collapse of Mumias Sugar Company, a probe they claimed could only be executed by the Public Investments Committee.
The committee had also passed a recommendation of another round of investigation while thrashing the findings of a forensic audit done by international management firm KPMG.
To see through the recommendations, a filing by the Kenya Revenue Authority to the committee confirming that sugar export claims entered by Mumias were non-existent was ignored and only annexed as among the documents received.
KRA had been invited to confirm whether sugar worth Sh2.7 billion claimed as export by Mumias over a seven-year period ending 2012 was actually factual.
KRA Customs Commissioner Julius Musyoki told the committee in a meeting last month that there was no documentation to support the export claims and Mumias managers could therefore have falsely reported the sugar export but the same commodity dumped in the local market.
Another member of the same committee has warned this writer to ‘stop mentioning people’s names around’ in reference to the coverage following the release of the KPMG draft report that the group has now dismissed as nothing more than a compilation of rumours.
KPMG has stood by its report and accused Mumias of refusing to respond on questions raised during investigation.
