Wetang’ula vows to settle queries

Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula has vowed to deal with the scores of queries over Kenya’s foreign policy when a committee report indicting him makes its way to Parliament.

The minister said he would be meeting the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Relations to respond to all issues raised by witnesses about the Japan embassy deal and international agreements on piracy.

However, Mr Wetang’ula declined to respond to the allegations by then ambassador Dennis Awori that the country lost Sh1 billion in the Tokyo deal.

“I will be going before that committee again. I stand by what I told them,” Mr Wetang’ula told journalists in his office at the weekend.

The government bought the property on June 30, 2009, for Sh1.5 billion, raising questions as to why officials in Tokyo turned down an offer to buy land from the Japanese government, opting to buy from an individual at double the cost.

When Mr Awori met the House committee last Wednesday, he said the government had paid bought land which has a concrete chancery and a wooden house. He said the premises should not have been bought for more than Sh500 million.

Committee chairman Adan Keynan and his team said the embassy was in a “slum”, in a very unsuitable place for an embassy. But Mr Wetang’ula, when he met the House team, insisted that the purchase was above board.

Lands minister James Orengo told the committee that procurement rules were flouted and the transaction conducted in a manner “that made no sense”.

On the fresh controversy about the agreements he signed with foreign governments to fight piracy, the minister said he was ready to set the record straight.

Competence

The committee chaired by Mr Keynan has termed the agreements as skewed and hell-bent on undermining Kenya’s sovereignty. It has questioned the competence of the minister in signing the agreements and wants him reprimanded.

The committee wants Parliament to adopt the report and compel the government to terminate the implementation of six Memoranda of Understanding signed with the United States of America, the United Kingdom, China, the European Union, Canada, and Denmark.

The agreements centre on the conditions of transfer of persons suspected of piracy and armed robbery at sea.