Fury as Speaker blocks report on Kimunya

Former Finance minister Amos Kimunya. Photo/FILE

What you need to know:

  • MPs said refusal to allow the report into the sale of the Grand Regency amounted to sabotage
  • Parliament on Thursday night went on recess until October 7 and, so, the report cannot be tabled before then.
  • Committee wants Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya barred from holding any ministerial position.
  • Sources say the report proposes that Prof Ndung’u should be chastised for the role he played in the entire transaction.

Furious MPs protested as the Speaker Thursday blocked a damning report into the conduct of former Finance Minister Amos Kimunya.

They claimed the Speaker’s refusal to allow the report, into the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel, to be tabled amounted to sabotage.

It is understood the report demands that Mr Kimunya should be sacked over the controversial sale of the hotel.

MPs who drew up the report say President Kibaki should be told that Mr Kimunya is unfit to return to the Cabinet and that he should be severely reprimanded.

Not compatible

His conduct over the sale should be referred to the House Powers and Privileges Committee for action, says the Okemo committee set up to look into the sale, according to sources familiar with the report.

They quoted the report and said it concluded: “That the appointing authority be advised that the conduct of Mr Kimunya is not compatible with that of a Cabinet minister.”

Parliament last night went on recess until October 7 and, therefore, the report cannot be tabled before then.

Mr Kimunya was forced to step aside last month to allow investigations into the Grand Regency sale after Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in him.

Another investigation into the sale is being conducted by former Chief Justice Abdul Majid Cockar.

Leading protests over the aborted attempt to table the report, was Joint Government Chief Whip Jakoyo Midiwo, a member of the Parliamentary committee on Finance and Trade.

He spoke of subversion on the Government side and accused deputy Speaker Farah Maalim of stopping the tabling of the report before MPs. “This is a very brave statement.. There is somebody attempting to subvert the work of the Finance committee and if they will not allow it to be tabled, I will call a press conference next Tuesday and read the report publicly,” he said.

He was speaking just a few hours after being thrown out of the House for questioning Mr Maalim’s ruling against tabling of the committee’s findings.

But as he spoke, it emerged that the committee wants Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya barred from holding any ministerial position.

False information

In a tough indictment of the former Finance minister, the committee proposed that he should be thoroughly reprimanded and be referred to the powerful committee of Parliament — the Powers and Privileges Committee.

Sources privy to the report said the committee found that Mr Kimunya withheld material facts and gave false information to the committee when he first appeared before it on May 21, when he stated that the hotel had not been sold.

But it is said the Kipipiri MP clarified that he meant selling the hotel to another company — Meridian Arab African Company, and not the Libyan African Investments Company.

The Kipipiri MP is also said to have failed to provide the committee with a confidential brief on Grand Regency that was submitted to him by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Njuguna Ndung’u.

Sources said the report indicated that Mr Kimunya presented himself as a mere messenger who was not at the centre of the controversial sale, yet if fell under his docket and in spite of giving Parliament an undertaking that he would ensure that proper procedures were followed.

The MP is understood to have told the committee that the Treasury was not involved in the sale since it was a transaction that was conducted by the CBK, Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and Uhuru Highway Development Ltd — owners of the hotel at the time.

He is also said to have stated that he was not a signatory to the memorandum of understanding between the Governments of Kenya and Libya, where interest in buying the hotel was first declared.

The sources say that the report proposes that Prof Ndung’u should be chastised for the role he played in the entire transaction.

This punishment, it is said, is derived from the failure by the CBK governor to disclose before the committee that a 10 per cent deposit ($4.5 million or Sh290 million) had been paid by the Libya African Company towards the purchase of the five-star hotel.

Prof Ndung’u, it is understood, also failed to provide evidence that he consulted Attorney General Amos Wako, the KACC and the Treasury during the transaction.

In addition, he is said to have been found guilty of single-sourcing, yet the law required him to source for more buyers for the hotel.

Although it is understood the report notes that the governor kept briefing the CBK board on the progress of the sale of the hotel, his deputy, Ms Jacinta Mwatela informed the committee that the process was carried out with a lot of secrecy and the information provided was very limited.

The governor appears to have saved face through a meeting he held with Prime Minister Raila Odinga on April 23, when he stated that the hotel had been sold for Sh2.9 billion ($45 million) and a 10 per cent deposit of Sh290 million ($4.5 million) had been paid to the CBK.

The report, sources said, noted with concern that the CBK failed to include the element of interest in the sale of the hotel.

It also emerged that the report recommended that the CBK moves fast to transfer all the monies in the hotel’s accounts to its own, as ordered by the High Court on April 9.

Sources said the report also makes far reaching recommendations that seek to amend the Public Procurement and Disposal Act and the Companies Act.

Investments by foreign companies, it is said, should be conducted in line with the law and in an open and transparent manner that brings together all government organs.

On Thursday, Mr Maalim stopped Mr Okemo as he attempted to table the report in the House, sparking protests from MPs Midiwo, Ekwee Ethuro (Turkana Central) and Bonny Khalwale (Ikolomani).

Mr Maalim said the report had not been circulated among MPs and in the documents room where it could be forwarded to the office of the Clerk to the National Assembly and the Speaker.

He said the committee had not complied with the requirements, and would not be allowed to lay the report on the table.

“I cannot bend the rules of the House even for the President, Prime Minister, Vice-President or the chairman of a House committee,” he said

Mr Ethuro sought his discretion to have the report tabled.

The Turkana Central MP said that Speaker Kenneth Marende had ruled that the report be tabled Thursday.

“The chair (Speaker Marende) made a ruling that it be tabled today and we are seeking your indulgence to table it,” he said.

Dr Khalwale said it was important to table the report because the House was going on recess and it would take another two months for it to be made public.

Midiwo Thrown out

“The mistake you are referring to is not by Mr Okemo, but by the Clerk and we fear that this urgent matter will not be tabled because we are going on recess,” he said as Mr Maalim stuck to his guns.

The deputy Speaker threw Mr Midiwo out of the House for persistently rising on a point of order and demanding to be heard.

The Gem MP later addressed a press conference and accused the deputy Speaker of making an “unusual” ruling.

“The deputy Speaker did something unusual and I can assure you that Farah Maalim did not complain of not seeing the report.

The deputy Speaker cooked up some ruling to protect somebody,” he said.

He went on: “It is unusual for the (deputy) Speaker to raise such issues, which are normally raised by MPs.”

Mr Midiwo questioned reasons for attempts to hold a House Business Committee in the afternoon and the failure of photocopiers at Parliament Buildings, Country Hall and Continental House.

“All copiers were sabotaged in all buildings that serve Parliament,” he said and claimed that a senior civil servant had been calling all ministers to attend Parliament and vote for the motion of adjournment.

The motion was later passed by the House despite stiff opposition from back benchers.