Raila cleared as House rejects report on Sh3bn maize scandal

Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Photo/FILE

Parliament on Thursday absolved Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s his family and his office from blame in the Sh3.6 billion maize scandal. MPs deleted clauses that linked Mr Odinga’s son and personal assistant to the scandal and then threw out the entire report on the grounds that it was “politically engineered” and was “absolutely clumsy”.

The MPs, including a member of the team which prepared the report, disowned some of the clauses saying that Mr Odinga and officers under his watch had not been invited to give their evidence to the parliamentary committee.

The clauses implicating the ODM leader were removed by an amendment moved by Gwassi MP John Mbadi (ODM), who said that the recommendations made against the PM were “baseless”.

The proposal by the House committee on Agriculture, which is chaired by Naivasha MP John Mututho, to have an ad hoc committee on food security investigated was the first to be deleted. Mr Mbadi said “there were no tangible facts linking the committee to the food shortage.”

The report had accused the Food Security Committee chaired by Mr Odinga of interfering with the tendering process, but Mr Mbadi argued that “in any case, it was the National Cereals and Produce Board which implemented the directive.”

Mr Robert Monda (Nyaribari Chache, Narc) who seconded the amendment said by adversely mentioning the Prime Minister, his family and his personal assistants and failing to invite them to shed light on the matter, the committee had not done its job properly.

“Who does this report refer to the PM has two sons, very many personal assistants and when you say family, do you mean the nuclear, extended or political family?” Mr Mbadi asked. Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba supported the deletion of Mr Odinga’s name saying there was a trend by some MPs to focus on witch-hunting.

“It is absolutely unacceptable when this House becomes an arena of speculation and rumour mongering,” he said. Even the recommendation to have the Grain Bulk Handling Limited investigated was deleted. Also absolved were the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr Romano Kiome and his Special Programmes counterpart, Mr Ali Mohammed, whose sacking had been recommended by the report.

The debate was disrupted temporarily after Githunguri MP Njoroge Baiya notified the chair that there were not enough MPs to transact business. The quorum bell was rung and ODM whip Jakoyo Midiwo and Nyakach MP Pollyns Ochieng rushed out to marshal MPs back into the debating chamber.

There were 32 MPs in the House when the debate resumed at 6.05 pm. Cabinet ministers William ole Ntimama and Otieno Kajwang termed the allegations against Mr Odinga as “a witch-hunt” engineered to sully the name of the Prime Minister.

“You ought to show what the Prime Minister has done to warrant such investigations on his family, associates and even on the Food Security Committee. We must be cautious in the way we approach these things,” Mr Ntimama, also the National Heritage minister, said. “One day we’ll know what happened to our maize.”

He challenged the committee to explain why they had not also recommended that the ministers be sacked together with the PSs since they work together.

Food security

Mr Kajwang dismissed the report as lacking foundation and a disgrace to Parliament. “This committee was supposed to concentrate on issues of food security and it did not do that,” he said. Mr Midiwo stood on a point of order seeking to have the debate cut short since “everybody is saying the same thing.”

Temporary Speaker Margaret Kamar then asked Mr Mututho to respond after which the House rejected the 77-page report. Mr Mututho listened attentively as his report was discredited. When he stood to reply to the Motion after the contributions, he was brief:

“There comes a time when people have to learn to speak and listen to the truth. And the truth lies in this report,” he said. The MP described the report as “a professional piece of work done by a professional committee.”