Ringera isolated as one director quits

The leadership of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission was on Friday thrown into disarray when one of the directors reappointed by President Kibaki but rejected by Parliament resigned.

Assistant director Smokin Wanjala, who has been in charge of preventive services, said he was responding to the public mood in turning down his reappointment for a second term.

The resignation came as the KACC Advisory Board fine-tuned plans to advertise vacancies for the three directors.

But the KACC director, Mr Justice Aaron Ringera, whose reappointment by President Kibaki was also rejected by Parliament, remained tight-lipped about his next move.

Failed to show up

Mr Ringera failed to show up in the office for the second day running since Parliament voted to reject the reappointments by the Head of State.

As Dr Wanjala, a former University of Nairobi law lecturer, was tendering his resignation, another assistant director reappointed at the same time, Ms Fatuma Sichale, was said to be packing her belongings. It was not clear whether she too was planning to resign.

Meanwhile, the KACC Advisory Board is scheduled to meet next week to approve an advertisement for the directors’ positions. Interestingly, the embattled head of the anti-graft body is required to approve payment for the advertisement before it is published.

Dr Wanjala quit as the Advisory Board wrote to the reappointed trio informing them of the expiry of their contracts.

Board members, who spoke to Saturday Nation on condition of anonymity as they are not allowed to divulge board matters, said a sub-committee had finalised the details of the search for replacement.

Board members

The board members said that unlike at the time when the current director was appointed, the potential director they would be looking for must not necessarily be a judge.

“The candidate simply needs to be knowledgeable about or experienced in public administration, accounting and financial matters, fraud investigation and the law,” said one of the directors.

Besides, the KACC director must be a person of outstanding honesty and integrity to be able to secure the public’s goodwill, “which the embattled director seems to have lost, given the circumstances surrounding his reappointment”.

At a press conference at the 680 Hotel yesterday, Dr Wanjala said he had decided to leave office ‘guided by God Almighty, my love for the people of Kenya, loyalty to the country’s constitutional institutions and my family’.

Dr Wanjala had prepared an eight-page statement, which he read for more than 10 minutes. He cited the furore raised by President Kibaki’s decision as the reason for his resignation.

He insisted that he saw nothing illegal or unprocedural in his reappointment, adding: “If the action of my ceasing to be an assistant director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission can help refocus our attention and energies on other pressing matters to this country, if it can help save an institution that I have worked so hard to build, then it is not even a small price to pay.”

Dr Wanjala said that he would have preferred to stay on and await a court ruling on the matter.

“When Parliament speaks the citizen is advised not to ignore that voice especially when such a citizen happens to be in the position in which I now am,” he said.

Parliament resolved that the President did not follow the law since the First Schedule containing the provisions relating to the staff of the commission, section 2 (I) states: “If the office of the director or an assistant director becomes vacant, the Advisory Board shall, within three months, recommend a person to be appointed to fill the vacancy”.

The KACC Advisory Board chairman, Mr Okong’o O’Mogeni, who is also the chairman of the Law Society of Kenya, described Dr Wanjala’s resignation as “a magnanimous decision taken in the best interest of the nation”.

He congratulated him, adding that the step he took showed that the country was bigger than an individual.

According to Mr Billow Kerrow, a member of the Advisory Board, Mr Ringera and Ms Sichale should emulate Dr Wanjala and accept to undergo “due process if they are to be re-appointed.”

“The decision is very welcome because it’s in line with what the board and Parliament have said. I’d urge the rest to follow suit and allow themselves to be subjected to due process,” said Mr Kerrow.