Kenyan minister calls for speedy hearings

Ruto & Rift Valley Mps on Mau Evictions

Information and Communications Minister Samuel Poghisio has asked the judiciary to speed up the hearing of a corruption case facing suspended Higher Education minister William Ruto to enable him return to the cabinet and participate in national building.

Speaking in West Pokot district on Saturday during the burial of Patrick Sirombe Lotodo who perished in a road accident along the Nairobi-Naivasha highway recently, Poghisio said although the Eldoret north MP was on suspension pending the conclusion of the case, he was still a prominent national leader.

On the controversial appointment of the Kenya Bureau of Standard boss, the minister said the candidate was qualified and that the exercise transparent.

Meanwhile, six members of Parliament from North Rift have called on the government to speed up the resettlement of evictees from the Mau and Embobut forests and other internally displaced persons (lDPs) living in deplorable conditions.

The legislators, led by Eldoret North MP, William Ruto, said the 3.6 billion shillings set aside by Treasury for the purchase of alternative land should be utilized immediately instead of being left to lie idle while Kenyans were suffering.

The MPs who were speaking during a funds drive in aid of Anin secondary school in Keiyo North constituency, lamented that many people have lost their lives on transit camps due to pathetic living conditions aggravated by harsh weather conditions and poor diet.

They expressed concern that more attention was being given to politics at the expense of addressing the plight of lDPs languishing in abject poverty in Mawingu, Kapkembu and various parts of the Country.

The funds drive was attended by among others, Marakwet East Member of Parliament, Linah Kilimo, her Ainamoi counterpart, Benjamin Langat, Jackson Kiptanui of Keiyo South, Moses Lesonet of Eldama Ravine and Lucas Chepkitony of Keiyo North.

At the sametime, the Mps vowed to join forces with rival parties in parliament and pass a vote of no confidence against the premier.
The legislators warned other MPs from the region to join Ruto or else they will find themselves in political wilderness come 2012.

Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki suspended the higher education minister from the Cabinet on 19 October, following a Constitutional Court ruling on a six-year-old corruption case accusing Ruto of illegally selling land to a state corporation.

Mr Ruto's woes began when the Constitutional Court ruled that he should stand trial in a Sh96 million fraud case that was instituted against him six years ago.

The minister had challenged the charges, arguing that it was a violation of his fundamental rights but the Constitutional court disagreed.

It was alleged that Mr Ruto fraudulently obtained the Sh96m from a former Kenya Pipeline Company manager in the pretext that he was in a position to sell land to KPC at Ngong Forest.

The court rejected the minister's claims that the case was instituted against him in order to finish him politically saying this could not be justified.

Mr Ruto maintained his innocence claimed that the case and ruling were engineered by his political enemies ahead of the 2012 general elections.