Now Ngilu comes out fighting, accuses PLO of witch-hunt

By Athman Amran
Water Minister Charity Ngilu has accused the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) Director PLO Lumumba of witch-hunt.
In a letter dated January 12, 2011, Ngilu said Lumumba had ignored her letter dated December 15, 2010 asking for the specific information on investigations in the ministry the body wanted her to furnish it with.
Ngilu also said she has always been willing to assist in the investigation "to the best of my ability".
"However, I can only do this when provided with specifics on matters that you wish to have me address myself to as the minister in charge, especially as relates to the award of contracts at Athi Water Services Board and procurement of goods and services at the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation," she said.
Falsehoods
Ngilu said instead the KACC director had continued to feed the Kenyan public with "falsehoods aimed at maligning my name and portraying me in negative light to make way for your intended action or inaction".
"My conclusion here is that there is no investigation being undertaken by your organisation but rather a with hunt," Ngilu said in the letter copied to President Mwai Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Attorney General Amos Wako and Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura.
She also copied the letter to PSs Mohamed Isahakia (Office of the Prime Minister) and Joseph Kinyua (Treasury).She wondered why an authority "required by law to undertake professional, dispassionate and impartial investigations" would show reluctance to furnish her with specific particulars of the areas of interest of the inquiry.
"Why else would such an organisation wish to ambush any individual in respect of complex matters requiring factual information not ordinarily in the possession of such an individual?" the Water minister posed.
She said to the best of her knowledge, KACC’s constitutional mandate was to undertake full and fair inquiry and not to skew its work so as to tarnish the names of those it was investigating before they have the opportunity to respond legitimately to the purported concerns of your oganisation."
No response
She also said she has on several occasions raised key corruption issues with KACC within her ministry and parastatals, but they had not been any response from the anti-graft body.
Former Water Assistant Minister Mwangi Kiunjuri blew the whistle over irregular allocation of tenders in ministry, while the Minister has linked her former assistant minister to business deals by NWCPC and Draft and Development Engineering Ltd, which she says were questionable.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has also defended the minister, arguing that she had committed no wrong in providing water to the people of Ukambani. Ngilu has also told KACC that a site meeting organised at Umaa dam in August last year was done without her knowledge.
"The meeting was unprocedurally and hurriedly convened on August 27, 2010 on very short notice through a telephone call by the Assistant Minister and the NWCPC Managing Director," Ngilu said in her correspondence.