Anti-graft board probes payment row

The advisory board of the anti-graft watchdog has waded into the row between director Patrick Lumumba and assistant minister Cecily Mbarire.

The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Advisory Board launched investigations on Wednesday after the Tourism assistant minister filed a formal complaint. (Read: Mbarire sues KACC boss over bribery claims)

Ms Mbarire has been engaged in a nasty war of words with the Kacc director over allegations that she and her husband, Mr Dennis Apaa, attempted to bribe him with Sh100,000.

Mr Apaa’s company, Broad Vision Utilities, has been the subject of a corruption investigation over business deals with the Water ministry.

Prof Lumumba called a press conference on Tuesday to say that a sting operation in which the couple were to be caught while passing him a Sh100,000 bribe had flopped after they failed to turn up.

Ms Mbarire claimed her husband had already given Prof Lumumba Sh100,000, but as a contribution to his charitable foundation, not as a bribe.

On Thursday, Kacc board chairman Okong’o O’Mogeni confirmed the 12-member team is acting on a complaint from Ms Mbarire, who is also Runyenjes MP.

“We received a complaint letter yesterday (Wednesday) and launched our own internal investigations into the allegations,” he said.

“We have already held one meeting where we deliberated on it,” he said.

Mr O’Mogeni, a former Law Society of Kenya chairman, said results of the investigation could be made public as soon as Monday.

“Any violations will be communicated,” he said in a telephone interview.

The team is in charge of advising Kacc on the exercise of its powers and the performance of its functions.

The investigation came as MPs passed a Bill that might send Prof Lumumba and other Kacc top brass home on establishment of an Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

During debate on the Bill, MPs veered into harsh and personalised criticism of Prof Lumumba.

If the Bill is assented to, President Kibaki will, within two weeks, set up a panel of nine people to recruit a new commission.

The Bill provides for Kacc members who wish to work for the new agency to re-apply and those accepted will be vetted.

The MPs accused Prof Lumumba of using his position to engage in petty politics and turning the fight against graft into a public relations show.

There have been fears that disbanding the commission could lead to a collapse of ongoing investigations into key scandals, including the Anglo Leasing scam.

On Thursday, Mr Okong’o said the commission had made solid suggestions to manage the transition without hurting ongoing investigations.

If the advisory board members were allowed to hold offices as commissioners, he said, the agency could be made stronger.

Civil society groups are also calling for caution in managing the transition.

“This is the period when the fight against corruption will be most vulnerable,” said a media statement by the Transparency International, National Council of NGOs, Federation of Kenya Women Lawyers and Africa Centre of Open Governance.

“The corrupt will (during the transition) seek to take advantage of the transition to plunder public resources, defeat the course of justice by interfering with ongoing investigations and cases.”

They called for fresh vetting of serving staff who would re-apply for the jobs since some of them may have abused their positions to benefit the corrupt.

The organisations proposed that the number of commissioners in the new agency be reduced from the proposed nine to a maximum of four.

Ms Mbarire, who has already filed a defamation case in court, claimed her husband gave Prof Lumumba Sh100,000 for a fund-raiser in Bondo hosted by his private charity foundation.

Ms Mbarire displayed a cheque written to the PLO Foundation, run by Prof Lumumba, and a photo showing him shaking hands with Mr Apaa during the fundraiser at his Bondo rural home.

She claimed Prof Lumumba had met the couple eight times since June knowing very well Mr Apaa was under investigation.

She also claimed he later asked for the cheque, from a company under investigation, to be replaced with cash, which was done.

“We, at no time planned to bribe, induce or influence him in any manner on any matter. As a family, we are still in shock that he would do this to us,” Ms Mbarire told journalists.

Prof Lumumba, however, said his contacts with Mr Apaa were part of Kacc’s strategy to prove that they had been trying to bribe detectives investigating their case.