Public Accounts Committee members launch rebellion against chairman Ababu Namwamba

Kenya: A revolt among Parliament's watchdog committee members is brewing as they allegedly strategise to oust their chairman.

The Standard learned on Thursday that members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) were appending their signatures in a move to replace their chairman, Ababu Namwamba.

Mr Namwamba is being accused of bribery, assigning himself many foreign trips and failing to delegate duties.

As late as yesterday evening, committee members were appending their signatures to have Namwamba removed.

The MPs, who asked not to be named on condition that "we don't want to be the face of the campaign", said they would this morning (Friday), submit the list to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Justin Bundi, with a view to having a meeting convened for them to elect a new chairperson.

The Standard also learned that a meeting to convince the members to drop the petition against the chairman failed.

The MPs said they want to kick Namwamba out and replace him with a member of CORD.

"This is a watchdog committee, so the Opposition will have to be in charge. I am sure there is an Opposition MP who is ready for the job. So far, we have 19 MPs out of 27. That is more than half," said an MP who also sought anonymity because he did not want to be seen to be undermining his party boss.

Well-placed sources within the committee said behind the chairman's woes was the push to exploit the potential for kickbacks.

Six MPs who spoke separately said Namwamba had failed to delegate leadership and, therefore, some of the pending investigations had taken too long to conclude.