{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Uhuru facing fallout over 'list of shame' - News | Daily Nation
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Uhuru facing fallout over 'list of shame' - News
President Uhuru Kenyatta is facing a political fallout within the coalition he heads over the list of government officials implicated in corruption that he presented to Parliament on March 26.
While he received a standing ovation after he made the bold pronouncements on March 26, MPs appear to have had a change of heart based on the events that followed in the 60 days President Kenyatta gave the commission to investigate and prosecute the individuals named.
The tabling of the list appears to have achieved what it was not intended to — stirring vested interests — which now threaten the national assembly's role in the fight against corruption.
While the anger was bubbling below the surface and MPs were hesitant to speak openly about their concerns, the debate at the final stage of the Bill to amend the EACC Act brought it out into the open.
Jubilee Coalition MPs, in particular, defied the position taken by Majority Leader Aden Duale and backed the amendment by Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa to remove the heads of the EACC secretariat- chief executive officer Halakhe Waqo and his deputy Michael Mubea.
"Members of Parliament supported the Kiminini MP's amendments to the EACC Act being informed by the failure of the EACC itself to live to the spirit and the letter of the Constitution," said Mithika Linturi (Igembe South, TNA).
Mr Linturi said MPs realised that even as the Constitution and the EACC Act requires the commission to be independent, "there is a lot of control from outside".
This was also behind the assertion by Mukurweini MP Kabando wa Kabando during the debate last Thursday. "The confidence levels in the EACC, be it the commission or the secretariat, have really gone down. It is a catalogue of disappointment," said Mr Kabando.
There has also been a feeling within Parliament that some well-known individuals whose institutions are under investigation for rampant corruption and who should have been on the so-called List of Shame were left out.
"That office appears to have become a toll station," said Mr Linturi.
There was also concern about the fact that the secretariat handed the list to the President directly without proper consultation with the commissioners who were then in office.
Those who opposed the motion have alleged that four cartels of people under investigation by the commission were responsible for the support for the amendment.
MPs have also been unhappy with the manner in which the EACC has gone after some 39 of them, who are reported to be also the subject of investigations over misuse of Constituency Development Funds money, bribery and extortion.
There has also been discomfort because of the perception that the United Republican Party side of government appears to have lost powerful Cabinet secretaries Felix Koskei, Kazungu Kambi and Davis Chirchir in the suspensions and there has been no sign from State on whether they are to be replaced or returned.
Also, the Nation was informed that files relating to a former top government official, a governor and a suspended senior official were reportedly ready for handing over to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
But independent commissions have termed the amendment to the law as faulty and should be rejected by President Kenyatta.
According to the Commission on Administration of Justice, the amendment to increase the commissioners to five and have them work part-time is likely to concentrate power in the hands of the commission's chief executive.
"(This) is a departure from the present situation where it is dispersed for accountability and objectivity," said CAJ chairman Otiende Amollo in an advisory opinion.
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