Team digs into law nominees' past

A nominee to the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIOC) during the vetting process by the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs November 25,2010. She was taken to task over impropriety in her previous roles. WILLIAM OERI  

By JOHN NGIRACHUPosted Thursday, November 25 2010 at 17:35

Two nominees to the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution have been put on the spot by MPs over allegations of impropriety.

Catherine Mumma and Philemon Mwaisaka had a rough time with the committees on Legal Affairs and Constitutional Implementation Oversight during the vetting process Thursday.

Ms Mumma was recalled in the afternoon after the team received fresh information over disputed payments to her by the National Aids Control Council.

Mr Mwaisaka, who was a long-serving civil servant before retiring and later being recalled to become the principal of the Kenya Utalii College, was questioned about past cases involving allegations of land grabbing.

The Aids Control Council has gone to court to recover more than Sh500 million she is alleged to have received when she served as joint secretary to a task force.

She was paid Sh903,000 in allowances while she was entitled to Sh357,000, according to the information given to the committee, whose sittings were chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba.

Mr Namwamba also referred to a report by the Efficiency Monitoring Unit, which quoted Ms Mumma making the claim that she worked for the full 180 days for which she was paid.

But Ms Mumma said the committee was “stretching the truth” by raising the matter given that it is a civil matter and should not prevent her from getting the job.

“I don’t see how a civil litigation trying to see whether I was paid or not stops me from doing my job in the commission,” said Ms Mumma, who had earlier appeared in the morning.

An amended plaint on the case was filed on November 15 but Ms Mumma said she had not heard of it before.

“I have  seen the amended plaint for the first time in this room and I smell mischief,” said Ms Mumma.

She told the committee her lawyer had also mysteriously dropped her and been replaced by another with neither her knowledge nor approval.

In the morning, Mr Mwaisaka was hard put to explain his past, in particular those to do with allegations of land grabbing and his affiliation to political parties.

Mr Mwaisaka, 58, was a civil servant from 1975, at the age of 23,  and became a District Commissioner at 29 and a Permanent Secretary at 35.

He has served under all three governments; as District Officer under the administration of first president Jomo Kenyatta, as a District Commissioner under the Daniel arap Moi administration and as principal of the Utalii College under President Kibaki.

Mr Mwaisaka told the committee that he has been a born-again Christian since 1973 and despite his close association with power did not involve himself in any form of corruption.

“I was very close to the powers that be. If I wanted to abuse my powers, I would have done it,” said Mr Mwaisaka, who believes his long experience in public service will be useful to the commission.

He said he was appointed to become Kenya’s ambassador to Nigeria due to his efforts to end corruption related to the procurement of drugs at the Health ministry while he was the PS. 

But he was put to task by MPs Eugene Wamalwa and Millie Odhiambo on cases against him over land allocation in Mtwapa, Coast Province.

He said he had in 1986 applied for and been allocated 77 acres of land in Mtwapa, for which he paid Sh664,000.

A nominee to the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIOC) during the vetting process by the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs November 25,2010. She was taken to task over impropriety in her previous roles. WILLIAM OERI  

By JOHN NGIRACHUPosted Thursday, November 25 2010 at 17:35

Mr Mwaisaka was later sued by his neighbour, and accused of grabbing the land, but triumphed at the Court of Appeal in 1995. He was taken to court in 2007, won, but was eventually forced to give up 31 acres to some 432 families.

He contested the Wundanyi Parliamentary seat at the 2007 General Election,  and confessed he was planning to repeat it in 2012, but had put aside his political ambitions to serve on the commission.

“Since last night, all my political ambitions came to an end. In my mind, I was acting MP for Wundanyi for some time, but that has come to an end,” he said to the amusement of the MPs.

Mr Mwaisaka  was a District Officer in Kiambu at the age of 23, later serving in Githunguri, Lari, Kikuyu, Thika, Kiharu, Kiambaa and later Gatundu after the death of the first president, Jomo Kenyatta.