Parliament sugar report was sabotaged by ethnic interests

There’s no doubt that the farce which took place in the National Assembly over the ill-fated sugar probe report was orchestrated by political forces from two regions: North-Eastern and Rift Valley. Once you get over the bribery spree that has shamed the House, you will see the interests that were being protected. Those interests were fixated on saving the careers of CS Adan Mohammed (formerly with Trade) and Treasury CS Henry Rotich, who the sugar report had sought to indict. The message was loud and clear: Leave our sons alone.

CENSURE MOTION

Time and again, Rift Valley politicians have displayed a tunnel vision on matters of appointments that affect them. They quite frankly go nuts whenever those senior jobs are threatened, no matter the gravity of the national interest. They simply can’t see the bigger picture. Just observe their noisy reactions whenever their ranking homeboys get prosecuted in the ongoing anti-corruption war. In March, Rift Valley MPs kicked up an unsuccessful ruckus to oust Health CS Sicily Kariuki through a censure motion because she had sent packing Kenyatta Hospital CEO Lilly Koros.

ELDORET AIRPORT

In as far as this sugar matter went, North-Eastern’s interests were aligned with Rift Valley’s, but in a sense theirs went further. President Uhuru Kenyatta had fired the first salvo when he demoted Mohammed and replaced him with Peter Munya at the Trade and Industry docket, which will oversee one of Uhuru’s “Big Four” pillars: Manufacturing. The fact that Uhuru took the action smack in the middle of the furore over the contraband sugar imports spoke volumes.

I have since heard of an in-camera briefing Interior CS Fred Matiang’i gave to the National Assembly committee investigating the contaminated sugar imports, where the CS opened up about what he called a “crisis” of contraband goods that were flooding into Kenya, and not just sugar. Reportedly, he specifically mentioned Somalia’s Kismayu port and Eldoret airport as major entry points.

SH10,000

It is the same Matiang’i who had earlier thrown a major public scare about sugar laced with mercury, but when pressed on the matter by the committee, he reportedly admitted he had played it up in order to call attention to the relentless traffic of illicit goods entering the country from all corners.

According to the Government Chemist, whose office was curiously moved from the Health ministry to Interior when the story of the contraband sugar first broke, the mercury had been detected in samples tested from the Moi Airbase in Eastleigh and another location in Bungoma. When the National Assembly committee sought a first hand inspection at the two sites, they were denied access.

Certainly Rotich owes Kenyans an explanation as to why he gazetted an open window last year where anybody was allowed to import sugar duty-free, resulting in a flood of a million unregulated metric tonnes of the stuff into the country. Mohammed, too, must answer why no proper standards verification was done on these unconstrained consignments. Alas, the expectation that Parliament would hold the importers and their enablers to account went up in smoke when crisp currency notes amounting to Sh10,000 per recipient started exchanging hands in the National Assembly corridors, even in the washrooms

TWILIGHT LADIES

Remember, ten thousand bob is only slightly more than you will spend on a healthy goat for your Christmas feast. Trade unionist Francis Atwoli, who recently acquired a fetching young TV wife, put it more colourfully when he said the twilight ladies of Koinange Street price themselves better.

The drama did not end there. Kanini Kega (MP, Kieni), who chaired the sugar investigation committee, let it be known he was drafting a motion to discuss the conduct of House Majority Leader Aden Duale, whose machinations Kega blamed for the rejection of the committee’s report. He claimed that the Garissa politician had tried to influence him to favour one particular company embroiled in a Sh2.5 billion tax dispute with the Kenya Revenue Authority. That should be Darasa Investment, a Somali-owned company whose demand for duty waiver for its shipload of sugar was rejected by the KRA. Darasa has since taken its case all the way to the Supreme Court.

VICIOUS CATFIGHT

It was reported that Duale had hurried from a presidential function to be in Parliament when Kega’s committee tabled their report. An avid ally of Duale’s, Wajir Woman Representative Fatuma Gedi, started a vicious catfight with the fiery Kimilili MP, Didmus Barasa, who accused her of trying to grease his hand with one of those envelopes containing Sh10,000.

Like Kega, the Kimilili MP is preparing his own motion of no confidence — against Rotich. For once, Barasa’s eternally fractious Western region has united to demand the reopening of the sugar investigation

Last Wednesday, the duo of Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula were joined by CS Eugene Wamalwa in a co-ordinated photo-op where they said the crisis in the sugar sector must be resolved.

[email protected]