E-Clips:- Business Pictorial - Crack In The Cabinet Over Anglo Leasing

A major fallout in Government over the Anglo Leasing Affair is threatening the survival of President Kibakis barely two-month old Cabinet following astonishing revelations of mega corruption.

Besides surging pressure from the Opposition, sharp divisions have rocked the Cabinet, with some ministers demanding the sacking of colleagues implicated in the scandal that would have cost the taxpayer Sh16 billion. Health minister Charity Ngilu, Housing minister Soita Shitanda, Science and Technology Noah Wekesa and assistant ministers Koigi wa Wamwere, Raphael Wanjala and Dr Enoch Kibunguchy are in the frontline of President Kibakis allies who want Cabinet ministers implicated in the Narc Governments worst financial scam to face the consequences. From the Opposition side, Kanu and LDP are stepping up their calls for President Kibaki to take action or quit. Former Attorney General Charles Njonjo said the only option for those linked to the rip-off was resignation. Separately, former Cabinet minister William ole Ntimama asked President Kibaki to order the arrest and prosecution of his ministers named in the affair. As the events unfolded, the Government announced that it had suspended payment of Sh15 billion for security contracts since the scandal was exposed in 2004.

Finance Permanent Secretary, Mr Joseph Kinyua, said yesterday that no single cent out of the Sh15 billion claimed by the shadowy firms involved in 18 security contracts had been paid since, until an audit and investigations are concluded by the Controller and Auditor General and by the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC). "We are conscious this is a matter of great public interest and, as such, the public will be informed of the findings of the investigations," the PS said. Cabinet Ministers Mutua Katuku and Dr Newton Kulundu, like their colleague Amos Kimunya, played down the Anglo Leasing issue. "Let Mr Githongo come home and give evidence on the Anglo Leasing Scandal if he has any, rather than using the media or speaking from abroad because this is not helping us as Kenyans," Mr Katuku said on phone from Malindi.

The tone was echoed by Sports minister Maina Kamanda in Nairobi who claimed Mr Githongo was being used in a wider scheme to bring down President Kibakis government. He said a plot to make the Government unpopular had been hatched. He described Mr Githongo as among the "underground forces out to grab power through the back-door". Mr Shitanda, who wants serious action taken on crooked Cabinet colleagues, said: "There are several thieves – those of today and those of yester-years – within the current crop of MPs. We need to table names of each set of thieves as contained in the findings and then leave the Kenyan people to judge us." Key party And while stressing that Ford Kenya, a key party in government, "does not condone corruption", Assistant ministers Wanjala (Water) and Kibunguchy (Health) demanded that those mentioned be relieved of their duties to pave way for investigations. They spoke out in the wake of the heat generated in the public domain following a series of exclusive revelations by the Sunday Nation and our sister paper the Daily Nation on the scandal that has gripped the country in the last one week.

Following the disclosures, Vice President Moody Awori has held three meetings with ministers and assistant ministers as he attempted to lobby the Cabinet to take a common defensive stand. Mr Katuku asked those with Anglo Leasing evidence to come out and present it to the Kenya Anti Corruption Commission or the CID "to investigate the claims so that we can take action against those implicated once and for all". His Labour counterpart, Dr Kulundu, defended his Cabinet colleagues named adversely in the expose, saying it was "not the Gospel truth". He said exiled former presidential advisor on corruption Mr Githongo should "feel free and come to Kenya and testify mundu khumundu (man to man). I have not heard of any plans by the Government to charge him with treason, as reported in a section of the press," the minister said.

Dr Kulundu added: "Whereas we are saying that Anglo Leasing should be investigated and the culprits brought to book, but we should also not lose sight of Goldenberg." He said the Goldenberg scandal under retired President Mois regime in the 1990s was "over 10 times bigger" than the Anglo Leasing scandal in President Kibakis regime. The Anglo Leasing scandal was exposed by Ntonyiri MP, Mr Maoka Maore, in Parliament soon after Narc took over from Kanu. It involved controversial security contracts for a tamper-proof passport system, a police forensic laboratory and a naval ship, among other big-budget projects. The Goldenberg scandal was the subject of a judicial commission of inquiry, chaired by Court of Appeal judge, Mr Justice Samuel Bosire, and sat for over one year in 2003. The Daily Nation gave insights from the report which is yet to be officially presented to the Government and made public.

Speaking in Kilifi last Friday, Health minister Mrs Ngilu demanded that all those mentioned in the scam be imprisoned. But Lands minister Amos Kimunya, spokesman for a group in the Cabinet closing ranks on the affair, described Anglo Leasing as a tired tale "that has been over-flogged .... we should genuinely not be talking about this thing any more since it is under investigation by KACC and some arrests have already been made. There is virtually nothing new about it," he told the Sunday Nation.

Crack the whip

Information assistant minister Wamwere asked President Kibaki to crack the whip and at the same time challenged the Attorney General, Mr Amos Wako and the director of KACC, Justice Aaron Ringera, to take action. "I am opposed to corruption no matter who is involved, because there is no good or bad corruption. I also strongly believe that we should divorce the struggle for power from that of fighting graft." Dr Wekesa said: "The Government or the entire Cabinet cannot be perceived to be involved in corruption. It as incumbent upon those named to exonerate themselves but not to ask others to clear their names for them." Bow out of office

Separately, Mr Njonjo called on the ministers implicated to bow out of public office until investigations into the scandal found them innocent or otherwise. "I fear for the life of John Githongo if he returns home and the parliamentary committee that has invited him should think of travelling to London to collect the evidence there. Again, those ministers implicated should resign from public office, like I did in 1983, until they are cleared." The former minister had been accused of having been a traitor within government following the abortive coup attempt of 1982, claims which led him to resign from government and Parliament. He was found guilty by a Judicial Commission but then pardoned by former President Moi. On Friday, Mr Githongo said he was willing to give "further evidence" after he received an official invitation to appear before the Public Accounts Committee.

Mr Githongo resigned early last year and fled to London citing lack of support from Kenyas highest authority in his fight against graft. He is a senior associate member of the St Anthonys College, Oxford University. Failure to prosecute Speaking at a meeting for the Maa civil society forum held at Gracia Guest House in Nairobi, Mr Ntimama said failure to prosecute those implicated in the scandal will amount to abetting crime. He also wondered whether the Kibaki government was committed in its fight against graft. Kanu chairman Uhuru Kenyatta, who chairs the Public Accounts Committee, has made three public requests to Mr Githongo to give his team fresh evidence on the Anglo Leasing matter.

LDP joined Kanu in demanding for the reconvening of Parliament and launched a petition for MPs to defiantly resume House business should President Kibaki fail to summon them back by February 14. LDP and Kanu have argued that senior members of the Cabinet have been linked to the scandal and therefore could not be trusted to investigate themselves. The ability of the other anti-graft institutions such as the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission has similarly been questioned.