Kalonzo Musyoka: Stop shielding corrupt officials

Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka with Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar and Nominated Senator Judity Sijeny address a press conference at the Serena Hotel, Nairobi, on July 4, 2015. PHOTO | ANTHONY OMUYA |

What you need to know:

  • Kalonzo accuses President of presiding over massive looting of public resources.
  • Wiper leader reiterates call for Waiguru to step aside to allow investigations into NYS scandal.

Cord co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka has, in a hard-hitting statement, accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of presiding over massive looting of public resources.

The Wiper leader, speaking in Nairobi on Saturday, said the President lacks the courage to name “the fat cats of graft” in his government.

“When a President is held hostage by an evil cabal of corruption cartels, the outcome will make Anglo-Leasing and Goldenberg look like child play,” he read out from a statement titled “The making of a dictator in a failing administration”.

Keen to sustain the opposition’s calls on Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru to give way for investigations into graft claims in her docket, the former Vice-President accused Mr Kenyatta of going out of his way to shield Ms Waiguru from taking responsibility.

“It is a pity that statecraft and resources are being mobilised to insulate Devolution CS Anne Waiguru from accountability on suspected shady dealings in her ministry,” he said.

He said Cord is not about to climb down on its demand that Ms Waiguru either steps down or be forced out of office to pave way for investigations into the award of tenders and jobs in her docket.

Cord co-principal Raila Odinga was the first to call for her suspension.

In what is promising to be the largest scandal to hit Mr Kenyatta’s Government since he took the oath of office in April 2013, damning reports have emerged of how the country could have lost hundreds of millions in opaque tendering processes and payments.

Flanked by National Assembly Minority Leader Francis Nyenze and Wiper Secretary-General and Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar and other politicians, he said the government had resorted to intimidation to silence criticism.

“The much-hyped digital administration is presiding over tech-savvy looting of public funds through high-level institutionalised corruption. It has lost the war to petty and sophisticated criminals and has embraced dictatorship as the preferred tool for suffocating divergent views,” he said.

The Opposition leader also accused Mr Kenyatta of seeking to roll back the carpet on civil liberties as well as accountability.

“The presidential memo to Parliament seeking to make the office of the Auditor-General subservient to the Public Service Commission, relentless efforts to militarise the Kenyan state and aborted executive order on police recruitment in April must put all of us on our guard to reject 21st century dictatorship by a presidency that cares little about the majority,” he said.

TALK IS CHEAP

And in what looked like a response to Deputy President William Ruto’s recent remarks that “there would be no Goldenberg or Anglo-Leasing in Jubilee Government,” he said: “Talk is cheap, and it does not get any cheaper than the empty and repeated public pronouncements from the very top government that there would be no other Goldenberg or Anglo-Leasing under Jubilee.”

This was a rare statement coming from Mr Musyoka who is not known for combative politics. The Sunday Nation has, however, established that accusing Jubilee of failure in containing insecurity, entrenching negative ethnicity and encouraging graft is a script the Opposition has devised to raise the stakes ahead of the 2017 polls.

Mr Musyoka also wondered how, in the face of such sleaze, Mr Kenyatta would be voted the best in the Africa Education and Leadership Awards.

Mr Kenyatta received the award this week in Nairobi after university students from across hundreds of institutions of higher learning in Africa voted for him in recognition of his peace initiatives in the region.

Mr Musyoka said that under the Jubilee Government, security has mutated into a living nightmare.

And Mr Ruto’s sentiments last week in Bondo to the effect that if Mr Odinga keeps Mr Musyoka as his running mate in the 2017 polls he would again be trounced by Jubilee did not escape the former VP’s attention.

Mr Musyoka said: “It would be a waste of my precious time trying to respond to Deputy President William Ruto’s unsolicited advice to Cord principals on our winning formula for the 2017 General Election. Suffice it to say that Ruto has enough baggage to grapple with and, if appointing himself political adviser to Cord principals would give him some comical relief, then let the self-declared hustler be.”

State House spokesman Munyori Buku said; “On Friday Kalonzo Musyoka promised on Twitter that he would shake the country with a statement today. But it’s a whimper that requires no response.”

And Mr Ruto’s spokesman, Mr David Mugonyi, said “The Deputy President has familiarised himself with the contents of Kalonzo’s so-called statement and it is not worth responding to.”