Mudavadi wants Uhuru to fire CSs in graft probe

Amani National Congress leader Musalia Mudavadi now wants President Uhuru Kenyatta to escalate the war against corruption by firing Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) mentioned in corruption claims.

Mudavadi said the country was unanimously behind Uhuru in the fight thus should seize today’s State of the Nation Address to force out the top officers out of his Cabinet.

In an exclusive interview with KTN’s Point Blank, the former deputy premier also hit out at Deputy President William Ruto and his allies for allegedly slowing down the war by playing victim card.

He said Dr Ruto was systematically inciting a section of Jubilee leaders against Uhuru and was succeeding in making Uhuru look like an opposition figure in his own party of Jubilee.

“If you are constantly being mentioned in graft; if you are becoming a regular visitor to the DCI or EACC …what image are you giving to the government you represent? These are people who should actually say Mr President it is not tenable to continue serving, therefore I quit,” said Mudavadi.

National Treasury CS Henry Rotich, Kiunjuri Mwangi (Agriculture), Eugene Wamalwa (Devolution) and Peter Munya (Trade) are some of the State officers who have been grilled in the ongoing probe into the two phantom dams in Elgeyo Marakwet County by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

He told Uhuru it was time for him to confront the corrupt and fire them as waiting for them to tender their resignation may not work as some believe “they are doing favour to the country" by occupying the positions.

“I would advise the President on two fronts; the first one, President you cannot be a whistleblower in your own government. Uhuru has to confront the bull by the horns.

The second thing I have to tell Uhuru is to address the issues in Jubilee; you cannot be put in a situation where systematically you are being perceived as the opposition wing in Jubilee. He must punch, he should not allow himself to be pushed into that dangerous corner of being a stranger in his own party,” he added.

He described Parliament as an institution that was under state capture with some of the MPs behaving like merchants around politics.

The former Sabatia MP said that some of the lawmakers in the current Parliament do not understand their role but have instead decided to operate like wheeler-dealers.

“These are people who have been conditioned to imagine that the President has no authority and is basically a lame duck. These are merchants around politics who believe they have gained enough from Uhuru and are now looking for who is next in line. There is so much impunity around,” he charged.

He said the President should ignore Ruto allies who want to frame the war against corruption as that which is politically instigated against one particular community.

“These people want to derail the war. They want to play victim and to some extent bring in the community card. So anybody trying to introduce a victim or ethnic card must be told off because when one steals they don’t do it on behalf of their community,” he said.

At the same time, Mudavadi appeared to oppose the push for referendum, saying there were more urgent issues to address from the current humanitarian crisis in the northern Kenya as well as the crisis in the health sector.

He said Kenyans were not interested in the push, citing low turn outs in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) sittings across the country.

He added that people cannot be discussing how to share power when hundreds of Kenyans were dying of hunger in Turkana, Baringo and other arid counties.

“When we went into the last election, ANC was very clear that there was need to review the Constitution. However, at this point in time, when there is a humanitarian crisis of lack of food, when there a crisis in the health sector where people are sharing beds, when we are seeing massive corruption cases, I think you will not be wise if you talk about referendum now. Deal with the humanitarian crisis, deal with corruption first,” he said.

He added, “The way it (referendum) is being propagated it makes politicians look bad. People are dying and you want to talk about a referendum to share positions.”

The veteran politician further weighed into the recent agreement between Uhuru and Uganda President Yoweri Museveni to increase Uganda sugar export to Kenya.

Mudavadi said the deal risk plunging the sugar sector in more trouble and could negate the sugar taskforce that has recommended reduction of sugar import in reviving the sector.

“As we speak it is important for Kenyans to know that Uganda is our largest export destination in this region, and when Museveni comes he has all the rights to increase export from his country, just the same way we expect Uhuru to lobby for more export from our country.”

“But the question is are these moves being synchronized because it is the main stay for Western Kenya region, we have a situation where close to six millions of people depend on the sugar sector. Does this increased quota negate the taskforce set by the President to revive the sector which is currently in tatters?” he posed.

He also spoke about the country’s debt level, stating that it was no longer sustainable for Kenya to continue borrowing heavy commercial loans.

He said about 60 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was being spent in repaying commercial loans.

“As we speak, about 60 per cent of our GDP is going to repaying loans. That is not sustainable. We have to stop any other heavy commercial borrowing. We must swallow our pride and start looking at concessionary funding once again. The debts that we have the government must start rescheduling them. We cannot be a welfare state,” he said.