Matemu, deputy fate ‘sealed’ after State House meeting

From left: EACC Vice-Chairperson Irene Keino, Chairperson Mumo Matemu and CEO Halakhe Waqo address the press in the past. President Uhuru Kenyatta was on Wednesday evening given the green light to suspend Matemu and Keino. FILE PHOTO |

What you need to know:

  • The Justice committee have up to next Tuesday to produce report
  • The presidency is said to favour removal of the anti-corruption commissioners even as a number of MPs see no merit in the move
  • Mr Chepkong’a was reported to have been among individuals sent to Ms Keino, Mr Matemu and Prof Jane Onsongo to convince them to leave office. Only Prof Onsongo agreed.

A visit to State House by MPs and the production of a report by an independent commission could mark the turning point in the debate over a petition for the removal of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chairman Mumo Matemu and his deputy Irene Keino.

The State House visit was on Wednesday by some members of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, the Sunday Nation has established, and was called in a hurry after the Presidency realised that they were about to scuttle its plans.

A committee member said: “There was a concern that there were conflicting instructions from State House. The meeting there was to confirm that the President’s wishes were to see the commission go because a majority of its members had already written to him and said they cannot work with the chairman.”

THE SECRETARIAT

They are understood to have been told that when new commissioners take office, they would deal with the secretariat if it is felt necessary.

The State House meeting came hours after a committee meeting where the draft report recommending the dismissal of the petition by lawyer Geoffrey Oriaro was to be adopted was deliberately scuttled by MPs allied to the Jubilee Coalition.

The draft report’s main recommendation, which has been seen by the Sunday Nation, is: “The committee observes that the petition lacks sufficient evidence  and therefore no grounds to remove the commissioners on unsubstantiated claims.”

Interestingly, that recommendation was not on the cards until Tuesday last week. It has also become the source of intrigue at the committee dominated by MPs who are lawyers.

The drama at the committee started in Mombasa.

At the end of the committee’s meetings at the Serena Beach Hotel last weekend, the agreement was that both Mr Matemu and Ms Keino and the heads of the EACC secretariat, Halakhe Waqo and Michael Mubea, should be removed.

“The committee has very objective members and there were actually no party positions on that matter,” one of the members said. He spoke off the record because the committee’s proceedings have not been open to the press and he was breaking House rules.

Members of the committee told the Sunday Nation that they however agreed not to take a vote on the recommendations and adopt the report until another meeting on Tuesday morning.

“I can’t tell what happened between Saturday and Tuesday because when we met on Tuesday morning, positions had changed,” said one of the Jubilee Alliance MPs.

The Mombasa decision was discarded after heated debate at Committee Room 9, which was closed to the press and the public but was so noisy it was easy to tell that vice chairman Priscilla Nyokabi was having a hard time controlling the MPs. Another meeting was set for 4 p.m.

But before it could start, with 16 MPs present, MPs Fatuma Ibrahim Ali (Wajir, ODM), Irungu Kang’ata (Kiharu, TNA), Benson Mutura (Makadara, TNA) and Waihenya Ndirangu (Roysambu, TNA) were called out.

This was the basis on which Ms Nyokabi said, after the usual prayers, that the adoption of the report, the single item on the agenda, could not be prosecuted as there was less than a majority of the committee present.

EXTEND DEADLINE

While some of those who remained, most of whom are affiliated to Cord, protested and said the Standing Orders had been misinterpreted, the meeting was called off.

Ms Nyokabi would successfully ask the House to extend the deadline on the submission of the report by 10 days. The deadline expires next Saturday, meaning the committee could table its report latest next Tuesday.

The extension has however given MPs keen on having the President establish a tribunal more time to lobby and overturn the recommendation to dismiss the petition.

It is understood that this side has got a significant boost from the production of the report by the Commission on Administrative Justice indicting Ms Keino over her purchase of a house from the National Social Security Fund at a time EACC was investigating the pension fund.

But they will come up against stiff opposition from their colleagues, who told the Sunday Nation the only item on the agenda at the meeting to consider would be adoption of the report.

A section of the committee is disgruntled with the leadership of Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkong’a and is reportedly preparing a motion of no-confidence against him.

Mr Chepkong’a was reported to have been among individuals sent to Ms Keino, Mr Matemu and Prof Jane Onsongo to convince them to leave office. Only Prof Onsongo agreed.

Ironically, Mr Chepkong’a is on the receiving end in his constituency, with members of the North Rift Youth Forum pictured in the Daily Nation on Friday trampling on his effigy because of the committee’s efforts to disband EACC.

The committee has 18 MPs affiliated to Jubilee and it is understood that they would resort to these numbers to overturn the recommendations.

“There were previously no party positions but now there are, so we must act. Ultimately, the commissioners are going home. The report will change and favour the commissioners to go home,” said a member.