MPs query anti-graft body nominees

Doubts were cast on Wednesday on city lawyers nominated to spearhead the fight against corruption.

Lawyer Patrick Lumumba had been nominated as the director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and two other lawyers, Pravin Bowry and Jane Onsongo, as the assistants.

MPs however questioned the suitability of the candidates. This became evident after the Parliamentary Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs summoned the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Advisory Board to a meeting next Friday to discuss the resumes of all those handpicked to lead the anti-graft crusade.

The board had nominated the lawyers. A committee member who spoke to the Nation on condition of anonymity, said the move was meant to pre-empt a looming backlash from the House when the names are finally tabled.

The MP said it would be “unfair” for the committee to be used as a “conveyor belt to pass on names while it had no idea of the rationale used to pick the three.”

Politically active

The issues raised in the meeting, the MP said, were that Dr Lumumba was “still politically active” and that Mr Bowry “had some high-flying clientele who were likely to bring about conflict of interest” if he were given the job.

The MP said the issues, many of them raised by the public, were important and had to be dealt with before the names were tabled in Parliament. The bone of contention is whether the advisory board was aware of these issues against the two nominees and why they decided to endorse them.

Parliament reopens next Tuesday, two days before the scheduled meeting of MPs and the advisory board. The committee’s chairman, Mr Mohammed Abdikadir, told the Nation that no decision had been made and deliberations had been postponed to Monday.

The KACC board had proposed Dr Lumumba to replace Mr Aaron Ringera as the boss of the commission. Mr Ringera and his deputy, Ms Fatuma Sichale, were forced to resign after Parliament protested against their re-appointment by President Kibaki.

Dr Lumumba’s short stint in politics saw him unsuccessfully contest the Kamukunji parliamentary seat under Chama cha Umma, a party he founded, while Mr Bowry is on record defending a number of clients accused by the KACC.