House rocked by extortion claims against members

By Steve Mkawale

Two MPs attempted to extort Sh6.6 million from a cigarette manufacturing company allegedly to go easy on exposing the firm for allegedly evading taxes amounting to Sh6.6 billion, Parliament heard on Thursday.

Assistant Minister for Finance Dr Oburu Odinga shocked members with claims that Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo and another legislator he did not name solicited the money from Mastermind Tobacco Limited not to raise the tax evasion issue in Parliament.

"It is true that Kiema and his brother solicited a bribe from the businessman and was given Sh300,000 and his brother Sh300,000. They were demanding Sh6.6 million from the businessman," Oburu claimed amid applause from a section of legislators.

Kilonzo, who was in the House and had earlier accused the Office of the Prime Minister of trying to help the company from paying taxes, challenged the minister to substantiate his claims.

He tabled a letter from the Office of the PM, addressed to the Kenya Revenue Authority Commissioner General and dated May 4, 2010 that requested KRA to put on hold the enforcement action against Mastermind Tobacco.

Letter

The letter, signed by the then Permanent Secretary in the office of the Prime Minister Andrew Mondoh and copied to his Finance counterpart Joseph Kinyua, said the move was aimed to facilitate further review of the Sh4.5 billion tax demand.

Gichugu MP Martha Karua who stood on a point of order said the letter was a direct interference by the PM’s office on tax matters.

It was at this juncture that Oburu dropped the bombshell on Kilonzo.

Kilonzo, however, denied the claims and asked the minister to substantiate. "The assistant minister has made serious allegations touching on my person and the dignity of the House. Is it in order for him to make such allegations without a substantive Motion to discuss me," he posed.

Oburu said he was ready to table a sworn affidavit by the trader whom the two MPs received monies from.

He said the letter from the PM’s office was only meant to have KRA re-look into the tax claims and not to prevent the authority from collecting taxes from the company.

Oburu made the claims when answering a question by Kilonzo who wanted to know why Mastermind Tobacco had not remitted taxes since 2007 and now owes KRA Sh12 billion in tax arrears.

Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim has directed the House Powers and Privileges Committee to probe the claims by Oburu and report its finding to Parliament in two weeks.