Aden Duale’s bid to block William Ruto jet report fails
What you need to know:
- Majority Leader Aden Duale had attempted to block committee chairman Ababu Namwamba from tabling the report arguing that its contents had already been discussed outside Parliament
- Ten witnesses appeared and testified before the committee
The Public Accounts Committee has finally tabled its report on the hire of a jet used by Deputy President William Ruto to tour four African counties in May last year.
The trip that cost Sh21.2 million attracted controversy leading to an investigation by the House committee which has concluded that government procurement regulations, procedures and practices were breached in the process of hiring the aircraft.
The report further says the committee was convinced that no internal investigation was instituted and that the loss of LSOs and LPO was stagemanaged with the intention of committing fraud.
“Efforts were made, subsequently, to cover up this conspiracy and attempted fraud,” the report says on whether the loss of the LSOs and LPO were deliberate or fraudulent.
Majority Leader Aden Duale had attempted to block committee chairman Ababu Namwamba from tabling the report arguing that its contents had already been discussed outside Parliament.
He challenged the validity of the report, arguing that it had already been published in the media and demanded that the MPs or members of staff of Parliament involved in its leakage must be sanctioned.
House Speaker Justin Muturi, after listening to the Majority Leader, allowed Mr Namwamba to go ahead and lay the report before the House and even give notice of motion on the same.
Mr Muturi promised to review Mr Duale’s claims before making a communication.
Mr Namwamba, however, argued that the committee had exercised due diligence in its investigation and that it would get to the root of the leakage.
“As a committee, we have been exceedingly offended by this,” he said.
Ten witnesses appeared and testified before the committee, among them the Registrar General Bernice Gachegu, Secretary of Administration in the Office of the Deputy President Abdul Mwaserra, Senior Assistant Director of Procurement in the Ministry of Industrialiation and Enterprise Development Evans Nyachio and Chief of Staff in the Office of the Deputy President Marriane Kitany.
The committee recommends that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission should investigate Ms Kitany for negligence of duty and possible conspiracy to defraud government or cover up on the same.
The investigations, it says, should include inquiry into her ‘inexplicable’ failure or refusal to commence investigations into the loss of LSOs and LPO.
