I haven’t eaten a goat, Matiang’i tells MPs

Information and Communication Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i on Thursday reacted angrily to suggestions by an MP that he had been compromised to influence the decision to allow Equity Bank to start mobile banking services.

The meeting with the Energy, Information and Communication Committee ended on a sour note after acting chairman Nicolas Gumbo said “we are not apologising” on behalf of his counterpart James Lomenen, who made the suggestion.

Mr Lomenen provoked the ire from Dr Matiang’i by suggesting that from the committee’s hearings, it was evident that someone had “eaten a goat”.

Eaten a goat

He was apparently unhappy with the cabinet secretary’s defence of earlier statements to the press when he supported the issuance of the licence to Equity despite the committee’s order.

“The other time, when we met the director-general, we made an observation, and today we are making another observation. The cabinet secretary appears to speak for investors,” he said.

But Dr Matiang’i refused to take that lying down and began his round of responses by stating that he took great exception to the comments “and insinuations that we are compromised.”

“It is neither right nor fair to impute improper motives on public servants like myself and suggesting that we have been compromised,” Dr Matiang’i said.

He said instead of making such suggestions, MPs should use their power to launch investigations on such matters and later censure the public servants involved if need be.

At the same time, parliament is yet to communicate to the Communication Authority of Kenya the order by the energy and ICT committee to have Equity stopped from starting its service.

Launch investigations

Mr Gumbo told the Nation that consultations are on-going noting that the committee was working on the letter to the regulator, which has granted the bank the greenlight to start issuing the thin SIM cards on which their service will run.

Dr Matiang’i told the committee that the cost of money transfer would be brought down significantly by introduction of competition.  

The thin SIM can only be used for data and money transfer, he said, but not for making voice calls. It can also be used alone, without having to be inserted between the existing one and the handset.