Anne Waiguru is being shielded in corruption purge, says Raila Odinga

Cord principal Raila Odinga on Friday made fresh allegations of corruption against Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru and questioned why she had not stepped down.

Mr Odinga said Ms Waiguru was being investigated by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission over her role in the installation of the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) at the Treasury.

Ms Waiguru was director of IFMIS before she was appointed to the Cabinet.

Addressing the press in his Capitol Hill office, Mr Odinga said EACC was investigating the handling of previous IFMIS tenders to the tune of a billion shillings.

He said Ms Waiguru was in charge during the awarding of these tenders and questioned why she was still in office. He accused President Kenyatta of playing a game of favourites in the war on corruption.

He said the government had shielded Ms Waiguru from the purge launched by the President when he tabled an EACC report in Parliament in March.

Mr Odinga claimed the report was carefully edited to present a selective list of unwanted casualties of the war on graft.

The opposition leader also claimed that apart from Ms Waiguru, the EACC also avoided listing Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Ahmed Issack Hassan cushioning him from pressure to step aside.

INVESTIGATIONS 'ONGOING'

On Friday, the EACC denied it shielded Ms Waiguru and Mr Hassan from the purge by removing their names from the list.

“The IFMIS case is under investigation and it is not tied to any particular name. That is why we could not put Ms Waiguru’s name in the list. As for the IEBC case, investigations are ongoing and there was no need to list Mr Hassan’s name” said Mr Michael Mubea, EACC deputy director.

He insisted that the commission was independent and that all cases with watertight evidence against them will be prosecuted

The corruption report that caused the suspension of the five ministers was tabled by the President five days after the EACC wrote to the Treasury seeking documentation in a consultancy undertaken by IFMIS while Ms Waiguru was in charge of the department.

Said Mr Odinga: “If IFMIS was being investigated by the EACC for the inflation of contracts to the tune of Sh1 billion, why didn’t Cabinet Secretary at the time of the suspicious transactions — Anne Waiguru — step aside like her colleagues?”

Mr Odinga warned that corruption in the Jubilee Coalition was spiralling out of control making a mockery of the President’s attempt to fight it.

“We will not take the President seriously on the war on corruption until thieves are treated equally. The law must apply on scandals over IFMIS, NYS and IEBC in the same way as the roads and other ministries,” the former PM stated.

Mr Odinga tabled documents showing how the EACC launched investigations into the operations of a consultancy associated with IFMIS, previously headed by Ms Waiguru while she served at the Treasury.

“On March 21, the EACC wrote to the Treasury seeking all documentation regarding provision of consultancy services for re-engineering of the Oracle Database application,” said Mr Odinga.

He tabled documents showing how Ms Waiguru authorised payment of Sh331 million on May 29, 2012 and another for Sh55 million on May 17, the same year for the provision of the Oracle consultancy which the EACC was investigating.

“According to this EACC report, except in a couple of cases where entire committees were under investigations there are only two cases without names of suspects regarding allegations against the National Treasury,” said Mr Odinga.

He also questioned the rationale for the approval of an additional Sh4 billion “afterthought” budget to the National Youth Service on May 7, 2015 after the CS requested for an additional Sh5 billion.