MPs, Amos Kimunya clash over rail tender

What you need to know:

  • Kimunya said the committee should seek expert opinion on the matter and not assume they know everything about the mega project
  • Mr Kimunya had been threatened with arrest earlier last week after he declined to honour an invitation to meet the committee

A meeting between the Public Investments Committee and former Transport minister Amos Kimunya ended in disarray on Monday, with the committee declaring him a hostile witness.

The meeting turned ugly after Mr Kimunya, who had been summoned to respond to questions concerning the standard gauge railway project, accused the committee of not being interested in the truth.

The former minister said the committee should seek expert opinion on the matter and not assume they know everything about the mega project.

For a moment, he engaged PIC chairman Adan Keynan in an argument on how to proceed with the investigation before he finally said:

“I am sacrificing my time here…the MPs here are not bothered to understand the issues…if you want me to help you let us engage in a mature way, let us behave with civility and honour in this matter.”

“I am not in public service and I have nothing to lose,” he said

From the onset, the former minister had stated that he was a private citizen and that he no longer had access to some of the documents and information the committee was asking from him.

The committee members had demanded that he be declared a hostile witness from the start, but PIC chairman intervened and allowed him to respond to questions.

THREATENED WITH ARREST

Mr Kimunya had been threatened with arrest earlier last week after he declined to honour an invitation to meet the committee. The former Kipipiri MP, who served in the Transport ministry between 2010 and 2013, defended the decision to cancel a feasibility study for the project by Kenya Railways Corporation in favour of a Chinese company.

He argued that by cancelling the Kenya Railways study, he saved Kenyans millions of shillings that would have been lost in a parallel process.

“China Roads and Bridges Corporation had conducted the feasibility study and preliminary designs at its own cost, I will be happy to suffer the consequences of my action of saving Kenyans Sh1 billion,” he said.

He went on: “There is actually no contract, what you are discussing is work in progress….there is no actual contract until a financial agreement is signed,” he said. “In fact I wouldn’t waste my time on this, what I would advise the committee is to get the draft financing agreement because this is what puts Kenya under obligation on certain things,” he said.

And when he was declared out of order by Mr Keynan, Mr Kimunya retorted that it was actually the chairman who was out of order.
And on being stepped down, he responded: “It’s really up to you, you are the one who called me.”

A parliamentary committee chaired by then Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale had previously forced Mr Kimunya to resign his ministerial post over the sale of Grand Regency hotel to Libyan investors, who remaned it Laico Regency. Former President Kibaki later reappointed him to the Cabinet.