Anti-graft dossier is witch-hunt, say Ngilu and Orengo

Suspended Land Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu. PHOTO | FILE |

What you need to know:

  • Orengo tells EACC not to allow itself to be used by some to settle scores
  • Cabinet secretary argues political rivals and powerful cartels behind her current tribulations as she fights back

Claims of political back-stabbing and betrayal continue to be made over the allegations of corruption by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

Individuals named in the EACC dossier that President Uhuru Kenyatta presented to Parliament on March 26, and who have recorded statements with the commission, are alleging that certain individuals want to use the commission to settle political scores or dispense off with certain people in government.

Suspended Land Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu, who has been summoned to the Integrity Centre to record a statement over the Waitiki farm, State House Crescent land and Karen land is among those who have come out forcefully denying the allegations levelled against them.

Mrs Ngilu has linked her woes to political witch-hunt and betrayal as she took the battle right to State House in her statement to the anti-graft body.

In the 98-page statement and exhibits she presented to the investigators, Mrs Ngilu claims that a powerful cartel, consisting of some State House officials, was to blame for her woes.

“I have encountered immense resistance from the cartels. Is it possible that these cartels working with other powerful forces are the ones accusing me and want to ensure that all the efforts towards transforming the land sector in Kenya are laid to waste?” she posed.

Mrs Ngilu names President Kenyatta in her response to EACC, who she says made the final offer of Sh1 billion to Evanson Waitiki for the direct purchase of 930 acres of land in South Coast.

The businessman wanted Sh9.3 billion as the price of the land and a further Sh392.9 million for property and asset loss when squatters invaded his farm.

A government valuation of August 23, 2013 meanwhile put the value of the 930 acre farm at Sh2.64 billion, which Mr Waitiki rejected.

“Mr Waitiki declined the offer of Sh2.64 billion. I reported the stalemate to the President who requested that I invite Mr Waitiki to meet him to discuss the matter,” Mrs Ngilu said in her statement to EACC.

“This I did and a final offer price of Sh1 billion was given in a face to face meeting on August 18, 2014 at State House Nairobi by His Excellency the President to Mr Waitiki in my presence and my colleagues Mr Henry Rotich, Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury, Mr ole Lenku (former) Cabinet Secretary of Interior and National Co-ordination, Mr Joseph Kinyua, the chief of staff and head of public service and Mr Evanson Waitiki.”

She further told the commission: “This was an offer made by the President as part of negotiations and not price based on valuation as is suggested by the (EACC) report. The meeting with the President did not end with a firm agreement. Mr Waitiki left without committing to consider the offer,” Mrs Ngilu told the commission.

Mrs Ngilu, through her team of senior political and legal advisers under the codename Operation Yellow Hawk said the allegations against her were “like OB (police occurrence book) reports from malicious people around the President and powerful cartels.”

Siaya Senator James Orengo, who was at the EACC headquarters on Friday, is also going all out to clear his name from the EACC dossier that President Kenyatta annexed to his State of the Nation speech to Parliament on March 26.

GOSSIP CESSPOOL

According to Mr Orengo, EACC should not be “turned into a depository or cesspool of gossip, trivia or tripe.” “It (The commission) is a constitutional body. It is not an extra-legal formation or a political police force. The coercive power given to the commission should not be turned into a mechanism available for the convenience of those who fail to succeed in using other competent and authorised institutions of government including the Judiciary.

It is not a modern day coliseum for political gladiators or an arena for settling political scores,” Mr Orengo said in his statement to EACC.

 The EACC dossier had claimed that the senator was under investigation over illegal acquisition of the 0.1194 acre parcel of land in Maraboi Trading Centre in Kericho (IRN 861). The commission was also investigating his alleged links to the Madhvani family in Jinja, Uganda, as well as the disposal of public land on Ring Road in Nairobi’s Westlands.

The senator has denied all the allegations and filed a formal complaint with the commission to “take legal action within its mandate against those who have made against me three false and malicious allegations of the most vile and despicable kind.”

Even the usually guarded Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia, who has also been suspended, has come out guns blazing over accusations of misappropriating Sh1 billion when he was the Permanent Secretary of Interior.

“This thing was done in 2014 and I have clarified to them that I was not in the ministry of Interior. So really, there is nothing I could provide about the tender. I don’t know the details,” he said.

He also denied that he irregularly acquired a house belonging to the Kenya Railways. “It is all falsehood. It’s all lies. You know this is a country where there is creative propaganda [and] creative rumours.

There is also jealousy that I have been serving in many governments. Where is the problem if you’re serving your country?”

“In public service anything can be said against you but it’s up to me to serve with dedication and humility and that is what I have done,” said Mr Kimemia after his meeting with the EACC investigators.

Other senior government officials who have been invited to the Integrity Centre to shed light on the corruption allegations against them are Agriculture CS Felix Koskei, his counterparts Davis Chirchir (Energy), Kazungu Kambi (Labour) and Michael Kamau (Transport), Machakos senator Johnston Muthama and Kenya’s High Commissioner to Tanzania Chirau Ali Mwakwere.

NGILU'S APPROACH

All of them have refuted the allegations against them. But perhaps it is Mrs Ngilu’s approach that has caught many by surprise.

As CS for Land, Housing and Urban Development, Mrs Ngilu played a crucial role in Mr Kenyatta’s ICC case when she told Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that President Kenyatta does not own any land in Kenya. Ms Bensouda wanted details of all land records that President Kenyatta owned during and soon after the 2007/8 post-election violence as part of her evidence in the case which the ICC has since terminated.

At the time, she came across as one of President Kenyatta’s most trusted Cabinet Secretaries.

But now Mrs Ngilu is accusing none other than State House officials for her troubles.

Concerning the State House Crescent road land, Mrs Ngilu alleged that President Kenyatta’s political advisor Joshua Kutuny and the owner of MYTA Development Ltd had gone to her office “on or about January 22, 2015” and invoked President Kenyatta’s name.

“He told me that there was a new development on this land and that I need to go slow on the repossession of this land. I declined and did not believe that the President, who had on more than three occasions directed me to repossess the said land, had sent him,” said Mrs Ngilu.

The CS also told the investigators that Senior Counsel Ahmednassir Abdullahi of Ahmednassir and Abdikadir Company Advocates had on January 12, 2015 claimed to act for one Julius Kitur and David Kipkorir Langat, who were both claiming the State House Crescent land.

Mr Ahmednassir co-owns the law firm with President Kenyatta’s advisor on Constitutional and Legislative Advisor Abdikadir Mohammed.