Ababu Namwamba faces House team ouster vote today

Kenya: The beleaguered chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Ababu Namwamba will have his date with destiny this morning when he faces the rest of the members at a meeting where a vote will be taken on his suitability to lead them.

The committee members who spoke to The Standard regarding the impending vote, said they were ready to approve the vote of no-confidence against the chairperson.

"The Clerk approved our petition. We will be meeting at 9.30am to pass a vote of no-confidence. I can assure you that 21 out of 26 members of the PAC are ready and willing to pass that vote. We need a clean start in the committee," said an MP familiar with the push to kick Namwamba out.

The MP sought anonymity in order to speak freely about the issues within the committee.

Though the petition is a closely-guarded secret within the corridors of the House because of the political consequences that the MPs may suffer, the MPs opposed to Namwamba oozed confidence.

"There's no going back. He keeps saying this is corruption fighting back. But we all know, these are the last kicks of a dying horse," said another MP who sits in the committee.

For the first time, Opiyo Wandayi (Ugunja,ODM) came out to defend his party boss against the allegations. He said all the MPs in the committee accusing the party's secretary general of corruption and leadership failure had to table the evidence.

"As a party we don't condone corruption regardless of who is involved in corruption itself. But we don't want this practice to take root in Parliament," said Wandayi.