Raila vulnerable as allies face censure over graft

By Oscar Obonyo

Prime Minister Raila Odinga finds himself in an awkward situation as his key allies and top officials of his Orange party lead the pack of those under investigations for allegedly engaging in corruption.

Whether by design or default, the latest development is more injurious to the PM than his co-principal, President Kibaki, whose last term in office comes to a close in two years time.

By virtue of his political appendage to Kibaki’s PNU party, Raila’s possible key challenger in 2012, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, equally takes less blame. Kalonzo’s ODM-Kenya only has three ministers apportioned to it by PNU.

Presently, all the PM’s deputies at the Orange party have been cited for alleged corrupt deals. Mr William Ruto has been suspended as Higher Education minister pending the outcome of a criminal case against him. The other deputy is Local Government minister, Musalia Mudavadi, who is dogged by a cemetery scam.

Others under scrutiny include Pentagon member, Charity Ngilu, national party officials, Henry Kosgey (chairman) and Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o (secretary general) and Immigration minister, Otieno Kajwang’, Raila’s close ally.

Although Mr Raila maintains the ODM leaders are “not guilty as yet”, the perception that the PM’s corner may be full of tainted individuals is not pleasant news for a politician who hopes to be Kenya’s fourth president. What is more, the ODM leader appears to be shielding his generals from attack.

“Raila and Kibaki cannot take credit for the few gains made so far in the fight against corruption. It is Parliament that is forcing change because even under the old Constitution, the two would have forced out corrupt ministers if they so wished,” says Narc-Kenya Secretary General Danson Mungatana.

Leave him exposed

Mungatana maintains the President and PM are not serious about fighting corruption as their actions only amount to “kifumba macho”(hoodwinking ploy). Mungatana lists previous instance where Kiraitu Murungi and Amos Kimunya returned to office, without evidence of clearance over the accusations they faced.

At a personal level, though, Raila has reason to be concerned with the direction of the current events.

With Mr Ruto already out of his corner, the possibility of plucking Mr Mudavadi as well from the PM would leave him exposed and politically diminished.

The Deputy Prime Minister is the proverbial navel that links the ODM leader to the Luhya, the second largest community.

From wooing Mudavadi to their side to helping pluck Ruto from Raila, an ODM allied assistant minister claims, some PNU operatives believe “they can only succeed politically by continuing to divide the Luhya.”

Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo further advances the theory of clipping the PM’s wings. He opines that the trend of exposing the alleged corruption deals is suspect.

“When it is increasing assistant ministers handing over their ministers for interrogation, then it becomes completely unethical and Government cannot run like that,” argues Mr Gumbo, Chairman of House Committee on Broadcasting.

He singles out Mudavadi’s case as one “that has every ingredient of politics: “Unless of course new evidence surfaces, available facts so far indicate Mudavadi had nothing to do with the cemetery scam and received no memo from his officers to that effect.”

On Ngilu, Gumbo observes: “It is curious that the source of complaint is the minister’s former deputy, who only raised a voice on being transferred. The all important question is — at what point did (Mwangi) Kiunjuri start hating corruption?”

Protection fee

The MP also points out that a Parliamentary House Committee has cleared Mr Joe Nyagah of bribery claims. The minister had been accused of receiving a weekly allowance of Sh200,000 as protection fees from Harambee Sacco management.

University of Nairobi’s Head of Political Science department, Prof Phillip Nying’uro, observes that one cannot divorce politics from the unfolding scenario in the political scene.

And the don adds another curious twist to ODM’s woes — Raila. Noting that Kenyan political parties are presently not driven by ideologies, Nying’uro observes that parties are still heavily personalised and viewed as “properties” of individuals.

“Any schemer therefore wanting to clip Raila’s influence or slow him down politically will easily target his proxies in ODM. This is because of the perception that ODM is Raila and vice versa,” he says.

Does this development or fear therefore warrant the PM to defend his allies? Mungatana does not think so.

“It is quite a shame that the PM could opt to defend a minister on account of a report that he may not have fully read and comprehended,” says the Garsen MP.

Mr Mungatana, a lawyer, says Raila has no cause for panic and should let go ministers involved in corruption.

“It will not injure his presidential bid at all given that the new dispensation personalises the Office of President by putting emphasis on the individual and not the team as has been the case in previous campaigns,” observes the Narc-Kenya official.

“Ngilu, Kosgey, Mudavadi, or whoeverÉ the issue is not about whether ODM is more corrupt than the rival PNU. As long as the wheel of justice is fair and does not stop, it matters less whether the first 10 culprits are from ODM, the next four from ODM-Kenya, followed by 10 from PNU,” adds Nying’uro.

The political scientist sums up Raila’s dilemma thus: “(the late Vice President, Kijana) Wamalwa got it right and the more frequent we quote him the better, because this whole thing is about Raila phobia and mania.”