Why Kibaki rushed to appoint Ringera

• President struck to pre-empt KACC board’s session on new anti-graft chief

Details have emerged of the frantic final hours before President Kibaki controversially reappointed anti-graft boss Aaron Ringera.

Impeccable sources at both State House and Integrity Centre, where retired Justice Ringera sits as the head of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), revealed that the Head of State moved with haste after it became evident that the advisory board was bent on having a fresh face at the helm of the war against corruption.

Advisory board

The gazette notice announcing the appointment was published on Monday, just two days before a planned advisory board meeting to chart the way forward after the expiry of Mr Ringera’s term.

Curiously, the notice was only made public on Friday (see related story).

It has since emerged that last month there was a strong plea to the board to forward Justice Ringera’s name and those of his two assistants to Parliament for approval instead of being subjected to a fresh interview.

The advisory board was determined to advertise the job and have Ringera and his two deputies apply afresh, one authoritative source added.

Indeed, one board member was of the view that the re-appointment of Ringera and his two assistants ought to have them going through the whole process of applying, being interviewed and getting parliamentary approval.

And the first chairman of KACC, Mr Abdullahi Ahmednassir, said that the contract awarded to Justice Ringera was explicit that he was to apply afresh on the conclusion of his first term.

“The first draft brought by government to the board wanted Ringera to get an automatic second term, but we shot it down,” Mr Ahmednassir said.

Pending development

After State House was informed of the pending development at Integrity Centre, it moved to issue the gazzette notice last Monday, a well-informed source who cannot be named told the Saturday Nation on Friday.

Significantly, the notice was published on the same day the head of civil service, Mr Francis Muthaura, resumed his official duties after a heart operation in South Africa.

The 12-member advisory board, reconstituted in June this year, has nine new members and has only held one formal meeting since it was constituted.

The second meeting was scheduled for last Wednesday, during which Ringera’s re-appointment, or the advertising of his position, would have been discussed.

However, the meeting was scuttled after President Kibaki gave Ringera and his two deputies, Mr Smokin Wanjala and Ms Fatuma Sichale, another tenure at Integrity Centre.

The board member the Saturday Nation spoke to, and who cannot be quoted as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said the plot to give Ringera another term stretches back to August last year, when the term of the first advisory board expired.

“It took President Kibaki and the then minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Martha Karua 10 months to have the new board reconstituted,” the board member said.