PS declines to resign over embassy scandal

Foreign Affairs PS Thuita Mwangi won’t step aside over the Sh1.1 billion embassy scandal, he said on Wednesday.

Mr Mwangi argued the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs that made the recommendation was “biased and bent on faulting him and Cabinet minister Moses Wetang’ula”.

In its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, the team accused Mr Mwangi of failing to ensure there was a valuation on the Kenya mission property in Tokyo by an independent local firm in Japan leading to the loss of Sh1.1 billion in its purchase.

“This led to the property being bought at a price higher than the market value,” the report said.

The MPs also accused Mr Mwangi of failing to institute investigations after a fire a the mission.

“If prosecuted and found guilty, the permanent secretary should be barred from holding any state office,” the report recommended.

But on Wednesday, Mr Mwangi scoffed at the recommendations and said: “It is quite clear the report is out to achieve an ulterior motive,” he said.

“The report does not clearly show how the alleged Sh1.1 billion was lost.”

Mr Mwangi said the Foreign Affairs ministry provided sufficient information to the committee, most of which it ignored.

“Every bit of information in the report was twisted to fit in a premeditated inclination to find fault with the ministry,” he said.

It was wrong, he said, for the team to recommend that Mr Wetang’ula and him step aside based on the “inconclusive” report.

He said an earlier investigation by auditors from the Treasury had concluded that the government got value for its money in the deal.