Waiguru: Senate should rise above vested interests to do what’s right

After an acrimonious session on Tuesday, senators finally put the fate of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru in the hands of a committee.

The 11-member committee, chaired by Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala, now has 10 days to decide whether Waiguru should be shooed off, as proposed by the Kirinyaga County Assembly members, or let to continue with her work.

Notably, the decision to put the matter before a committee had been strongly opposed by a section of Kirinyaga residents, and even some senators. However, at the end of the day, senators voted to go the committee way.

That was in order. That’s how democracy works.

However, that democratic decision was sullied by the reservations of those who were in favour of a plenary session.

They feared that it would be easy to compromise a committee into issuing a verdict in favour of the governor. That, perhaps, was what Kirinyaga Senator Charles Kibiru had in mind when he said: “We are not fools and we did not come to Nairobi yesterday. We know what has been happening around”.

Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jnr gave this line more credence when he said: “We have withstood offers of bribes by the State and others. We have been offered money, a lot of money and even intimidated”.

Consequently, the fears of those who have been pushing for a plenary session are not totally unfounded. If anything, Kenyans associate Parliament with unbridled greed and on several occasions, lawmakers have been accused of betraying public good for 30 pieces of silver.

For that reason, Malala and his team should do their work extremely diligently. They should prove sceptics wrong. They should do everything to prove to those who were against the committee idea that they can make a decision that will be hard for anyone to water down.

This they can do by weighing all evidence tabled before them and making a determination impartially without entertaining any external influence; be it financial or otherwise. Luckily, Malala has assured that that will be the case.

If they do their work as is expected of them, Kenyans will see clearly why they will have taken the position that they will.

We are, however, cognisant of the fact that not everyone will be happy with whichever decision the committee will make.

But as long as their verdict is above board, majority of Kenyans will agree with them. That way, not only will justice be done, but it will also be seen to have been done.