Parliament's sex scandals: Come slowly, mheshimiwa, mimi ni bibi ya wenyewe

Parliament was last year hit by a sex storm after Turbo MP Elisha Busienei allegedly became violent towards Taita-Taveta Woman Representative Joyce Lay, for refusing his sexual advances.

Busienei is said to have insulted her and slammed a door in Lay’s face during a State tour of Japan by President Uhuru Kenyatta in March 2015.

Not long before that, a monumental scandal had hit the Senate when photographs of what appeared to be Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko and Woman Rep Rachel Shebesh in bed were published on social media. Sonko claimed the pictures were Photoshopped.

In Uganda, scholar Sylvia Tamale touched on sex scandal in the country’s Parliament in her book, When Hens Begin Crow.

Be that as it may, a 2011 research findings published in the authoritative scientific journal, Psychological Science, suggest that philandering politicians stray largely because of the power they wield: “The likelihood (of infidelity) increases the more powerful someone is,” observes Joris Lammers, an assistant professor of psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, who authored the study.

While the study may have been persuaded by escapades of some top world leaders, including former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, former US President Bill Clinton and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), its findings mirror the Kenyan situation.

One of the high-profile cases locally came to the fore in 1986, when the late Elijah Mwangale, then Foreign Affairs Minister, allegedly attempted to rape a daughter of then Head of Civil Service, Simeon Nyachae.

According to a report in Economic Review, then an authoritative weekly published and edited by Peter Warutere, the incident happened during the minister’s official trip to the US. Nyachae’s daughter was an undergraduate student in America. Mwangale was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture the following year.

A decade later, Ugenya MP James Orengo – now Siaya County senator – caused uproar in Parliament when he named then powerful Industrialisation minister Nicholas Biwott as the “Bull of Auckland”. Biwott had allegedly been deported from the Pacific Ocean Island, where he had accompanied President Moi, for what New Zealand authorities reportedly described as indecent behaviour. Orengo claimed, to the amusement of MPs, that Biwott was the member of the Kenyan delegation who molested a hotel chambermaid during the November 1995 trip. He was, however, unable to prove or substantiate the claims on the floor of the House.

Later in 1999, a schoolgirl claimed she had been defiled by Julius Sunkuli, a Minister of State in the Office of the President. The girl claimed the offence was committed on a red carpet in the minister’s office. Sunkuli denied the allegations, claiming it was the work of his enemies in FIDA (Federation of Women Lawyers). Curiously, the alleged victim later recanted her statement and distanced herself from FIDA.

Mt Elgon MP John Serut was similarly accused of using his position to sexually molest a junior female parliamentary official. This was in 2003, while he served his first term. The MP, accompanied by his wife, denied the accusations at a press conference.