KIBAKI KICKED OUT

Trouble in Jimmy Kibaki’s outfit of Simama Kenya deepened with the organisation’s founder announcing he had suspended President Kibaki’s son as patron.

Dr Tom Namwamba, who had been suspended, emerged on Sunday to turn the heat on Jimmy.

"Given the powers conferred on me as a founder of Simama Kenya, I hereby announce the suspension of Jimmy Kibaki as a patron of Simama Kenya with immediate effect," said Namwamba.

He said he had appointed Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo as the acting patron. Efforts to get Jimmy and Kiema’s comments were fruitless, as they could not be reached.

And the battle could get nastier as Namwamba demanded that Jimmy makes public the total amount raised during a funds drive in aid of the organisation at which the media was barred.

"A lot of money was raised but as a founder, I don’t know how much. Can Jimmy be transparent and tell Kenyan youth for whom the money was meant for, how much we got and how it has been spent," said Namwamba.

The much publicised funds drive was held at a Nairobi hotel early this year where Jimmy was the chief guest.

On Sunday an angry Namwamba demanded that Jimmy surrender the Simama Kenya’s certificate.

Trouble began in the political outfit when Namwamba was suspended by Jimmy who issued a statement at the weekend saying the disciplinary action was necessitated by Namwamba’s leading role in the ‘No’ camp.

Secret attempts

Speaking to The standard yesterday, Namwamba termed as null and void his suspension saying: "I and Kiema came up with the idea with the assistance from lawyer Ken Okong’o."

Okong’o echoed Namwamba’s position that in all registration certificates, Jimmy has no legal authority to suspend Namwamba.

Namwamba said his differences with Jimmy started three months ago when he discovered some politicians had secretly attempted to transform the organisation into a political outfit.

"I discovered they had written to the registrar of societies proposing to have Simama Kenya registered as a political party. They were denied their request since by consent and I also wrote back declining the move," said Namwamba.

Okong’o said it was wrong for Jimmy to punish anybody because of positions taken on the Proposed Constitution.