Matemu picked after bitter fight in House

The man poised to lead the fight against corruption survived a truckload of explosive allegations and sailed through Parliament after a heated debate in which the Speaker’s impartiality was questioned and an MP ejected from the proceedings.

Mr Mumo Matemu, the man who President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga picked to lead the fight against corruption –and who a House committee rejected for lack of drive, passion and interest to chair the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission—got the nod after MPs extended the sitting to ensure his approval was granted on Tuesday evening.

“The rejection of this report will be unfortunate and will be the real test as to whether this House has the will to fight corruption. The worst thing that this Parliament can do is to show that its objective is not to fight corruption but other considerations," said Mr Njoroge Baiya (Githunguri), who is also the Vice chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, as he concluded the debate before MPs went into voting.

Even the allegations –for which documents were tabled in the House alleging that he had failed to collect Sh2.4 billion in taxes and that he had a hand in running down a public parastatal— did not stop the Frontbench from rallying MPs to support Mr Matemu, a former commissioner of the Kenya Revenue Authority. (READ: Matemu linked to Sh2.4 billion scam)

Mr Matemu was approved by 50 MPs against 49 MPs who wanted his nomination kiboshed. That was a close vote.

There would have been a tie and Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim did vote. He said he had a conscience and that he had a position as an MP for Lagdera. It was not immediately clear how he voted.

The acrimony in the debate, witnessed last Thursday when the matter entered Parliament, returned to the debating chamber after Speaker Kenneth Marende took a break from the chair and left it to his Deputy Farah Maalim.

Emotions took over and at one point Mr Maalim kicked out assistant minister Kabando wa Kabando for challenging his impartiality.

Mr Maalim accused Mr Kabando of imputing improper motive on the chair and undermining the dignity of the House. Mr Kabando stood to point out a breach in procedure when it became apparent that certain MPs were deliberately disrupting Mr Abdikadir Mohammed (Mandera Central) from contributing.

Mr Mohammed is a member of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee told the House that Mr Matemu had the responsibility to ensure that the Sh2.4 billion tax arrears were collected, even before the matter went to court.

On Tuesday, new damning evidence against Mr Matemu was tabled in the House.

Mr Gitobu Imanyara (Imenti Central) told his colleagues in the House that Mr Matemu was at the heart of the clique that ran down the Agricultural Finance Corporation through dubious loans and collusion with shady businessmen.

Mr Imanyara said the businessmen of Asian descent would apply for loans of between 18 million and 24 million from the AFC, and then, all these loans would be written off. He said the loans amounted to over Sh5 billion.

He tabled a letter dated June 7, 2011 from the Provincial Criminal Investigation Officer, Mr Andrew Nyarindo, to the Director of Criminal Investigation Department, Mr Ndegwa Muhoro, expressing his frustration in the efforts to investigate the fraud at the corporation that would give loans to farmers.

“The reason for not moving forward in the investigation had to do with the suspect involved in stealing through proxy and concealing facts. The said banks and AFC collaborated in disburinsg loans that were quite questionable,” said Mr Imanyara.

He urged Mr Matemu to withdraw from the race.

He added: “The key player is a person who we’re being asked to recommend to go and head the EACC.”

For the first time in the House, Ms Millie Odhiambo (nominated), who sits in the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, told the MPs why Prof Jane Onsongo and Ms Irene Keino were rejected for “lack of interest and drive”.

She said that when they answered questions, they seemed disinterested, and as such, their performance was “dismal”.

“These are women with very good papers academically. There were no ethical issues around these two women… their performance was dismal. I am a defender of women rights, but even as women we must be strategic. Let’s not go for things that we know we cannot manage,” said Ms Odhiambo.

“The committee had benchmarks (which showed us that the two) did not have sufficient interest in the subject matter. One was asked what he thought about political will and the fight against corruption. She said, ‘you know what, I have never thought about it, but now that you’ve asked it, I will go and think about it.’ If you’ve been at the position of a director, and you don’t know about lack of political will in the fight against corruption, the only way we can describe you, politely, is that you lack passion,” said Ms Odhiambo.

She added: “We cannot be taking a person to head an institution like the EACC unless we have cleared all the doubts. I am very worried….”

The nominated MP said Mr Okong’o Omogeni ought to go to court to compel the principals to give reasons why they settled on Mr Matemu.

“We thought (Mr)Omogeni was left out because of regional balance, but we’re not convinced. There are a few Kambas and a few Kisiis, so prima facie, the two communities are at par. If the principals want to reject number one and go to number four, they must have constitutional reason,” Ms Odhiambo said.

Others who backed the committee to reject the nominees were Ndiritu Muriithi

MPs have poked holes in the allegations against Mr Mumo Matemu about his failure to collect taxes amounting to Sh2.4 billion.

Mr Charles Kilonzo (Yatta) and Mr Kiema Kilonzo (Mutito) said the documents tabled were about a tiff between the auctioneer and the Kenya Revenue Authority on the payment of a Sh62 million fee-note.

The MPs together with Mr Manson Nyamweya (South Mugirango) and Ferdinand Waititu (Embakasi) said that Mr Matemu’s job as commissioner of Support Services (the head of litigation) and did not involve the collection of taxes.

Mr Kilonzo, he of Yatta, asked Speaker Kenneth Marende to strike out a document that had been tabled in the House by Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale because it was not an affidavit. The Speaker said the document was admissible as a letter, but not as an affidavit.

Mr Gidion Mbuvi (Embakasi) said the auctioneer, Mr P.J. Wishaminya, was an “extortionist and a fraudster”.

“I was with him in the remand prison,” said Mr Mbuvi.

Mr Danson Mungatana supported the nominees saying that they shouldn’t be vilified just because they had worked in government.

The debate turned acrimonious with Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim losing his cool and threw out assistant Kabando wa Kabando when he challenged the chair to desist from debating and allow MPs to do so.

Mr Kabando opposed the nominations, challenged President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to make appointments having in mind that Kenya needed to make a break with the past.

Speaking in reference to Prof Jane Onsongo and Ms Irene Keino who worked with the defunct KACC as deputy director and advisory board member respectively, Mr Kabando said they should have left office alongside former director, Prof PLO Lumumba.

"From this House we hounded Prof Lumumba out of office and we must now create a new scenario and break with the past to create confidence in the nation," he said.

Mr Kabando, an assistant minister for Sports, said although they were in government, they would not toe the Position taken by the Executive on certain issues in Parliament, but would do what is right for the nation.

"On issues before the House, we will not take orders on what has to happen. The message that must come out is that there are issues that must rise above parliamentary groups and ethnic caucuses," said the Mukurwe-ini MP.

He condemned what he described as an emerging trend in Parliament where MPs caucus and canvas in support of nominees on ethnic and selfish interests.

"It is disheartening that we continue to appear parochial, tribal and petty as we caucus in parliaments restaurant and corridors in support of individuals because they either from our ethnic group or we eat with them," he added.