ODM dares coalition partner over graft

A group of ODM MPs on Wednesday joined the coalition government power-play, saying they will not be “threatened or intimidated” by their PNU colleagues’ vow to take over the leadership of parliamentary business.

The MPs said the push to shift corruption politics to the House was meant to let the real culprits off the hook, a rejoinder which comes just a day after PNU legislators said they would make Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka the Leader of Government Business.

However, this is not the first time such a move has been contemplated. It was first brought to the floor of the House last year by PNU’s Kigumo MP Jamleck Kamau, and the motion is now pending with the Procedure and House Rules Committee, which is set to table it when Parliament re-opens next Tuesday.

“Let them (PNU) not forget that it is that committee that will bring this matter to the House,” said Gwassi MP John Mbadi as Forestry and Wildlife assistant minister Josephat Nanok cautioned: “ODM’s stand (on corruption) is not connected to any dispute with PNU.”

The ODM MPs, including two assistant ministers, accused President Kibaki of laxity in fighting corruption in government. “(He) is refusing to take action, and in fact has been conspicuously silent amid all the clamour for action,” said Mr Nanok, who read the MPs’ joint statement.

The lawmakers, all of them allied to the PM’s wing in ODM, said they were “gratified” that some of their PNU colleagues were “equally aggrieved” by the President’s laxity, and asked Mr Kibaki to uphold Sunday’s suspension of Agriculture minister William Ruto and his Education counterpart Sam Ongeri.

“This is the only way to convince Kenyans that the actions taken so far against the named civil servants are not just a way to buy time for a cover-up,” said Mr Nanok. “We are determined to continue playing our constitutional role in a shared government despite all difficulties,” said the MPs in a direct contradiction of the position taken by their party bosses to boycott Cabinet meetings and force a re-negotiation of the National Accord.

“Our problem is that this government does not want to take action,” said Mr John Mbadi. “Only one principal seems to be working.” But in a strange twist, the MPs disowned their party’s position for the African Union mediator, Dr Kofi Annan, to come back and renegotiate the Accord, saying the problem was corruption, not the National Accord.

They said that, while President Kibaki had ignored the power-sharing principle, they were willing to fight corruption under the “shared government” as long as the “President cleaned out the bad elements.”