PLO, Kibunja and Namachanga should ship out and shut up
By Miguna Miguna
February 17, 2011
They occupy important public offices. They are paid extremely well. They enjoy public and political goodwill. But inexplicably, the director of KACC, PLO Lumumba, the chairman of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, Dr. Mzalendo Kibunja, and the chairperson of the TRJC, Ms. Tecla Namachanja,have all been complete flops. They are disastrous. Instead of decisive action, they have concentrated on robotic talk, press conferences and workshops; issuing empty promises or threats.
PLO excels in empty rhetoric and theatre without substance. He barks but never bites. Three weeks ago, he threatened to unleash “high voltage files” for prosecution within days. Since then, we have not heard a whimper. More than two months ago, he comically declared that he was going to “fry small and big fish” within a few days. We saw some very tiny fish being fried. But the mbuta of Kenya’s corruption are still free.
Sometime back, PLO declared that he had “forgiven” some looters and racketeers because they had “voluntarily returned” some houses they had illegally grabbed from the public more than 19 years ago. No law gives PLO power to forgive thieves and looters. The thieves hadn’t been charged. The so-called amnesty hadn’t been approved by a court of law as part of a plea bargain as required by law. There were no restitutions, no surcharges, no punishment; PLO simply appeared on TV and made a declaration. This was the height of impunity. PLO must be brought to account.
Yet again, the print media has reported that he is still at it; promising thieves that he is working with the ministry of justice and the Attorney General to develop “regulations that will give KACC legal basis to give amnesty to individuals who come forward and give disclosure.” PLO is supposed to be a good lawyer; why is he talking about developing “policies” to let thieves go scot free when he has the Anti- Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, Public Officer and Ethics Act, The Public Procurement and Disposal Act, 2005, Public Procurement Regulations, 2006, Witness Protection Act, 2006 and the Constitution of Kenya with which to put them away for life? Is he confessing that his previous “amnesty” was illegal? Is the “policy” he wants to develop superior to all those statutes and the Constitution?
When, where and how did PLO get the permission to forgive thieves using a-yet-to-be-developed-policy? Is PLO working for us or for the thieves?
I took time and visited the KACC website. Unashamedly, PLO has posted 86 press releases and 79 speeches in the website but zero cases. There is not one civil or criminal case posted; completed or active. Not one. Under “Press Releases,” there is an item called “Triton Case in Court” dated 17 July 2009, but the link is a dud. The Press Release announces the “arrest” of Yagnesh Mohanlal Devani and some un-identified “senior management” of “Triton” and un-named “officials of “Kenya Pipeline Company.” There are no such companies registered in Kenya. No specific charges are listed. No particulars of which charges Devani or the unidentified “officials” are facing. The release declares that the “investigations are complete.” The release is shoddy beyond belief. All the other items are simply links to Kenyan daily newspaper sites. You mean we pay PLO more than Shs. 2 million for such shoddiness? The fact that the website has speeches and press releases rather than information about concrete investigations and cases tells us where PLO’s priorities lie.
Since taking over the mantle at the KACC, PLO hasn’t successfully investigated one single major case of corruption or economic crime. He hasn’t touched Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing, Ken-Ren, Triton, Grand Regency, Foreign Embassies, Maize, Free Primary Education, and the trillions the Kroll Report disclosed were stolen from us. Gosh; PLO hasn’t touched Kabarak University and the Kiptagich farm, which I told him about more than three months ago.
And as PLO was embarrassing himself with the amnesty promise to thieves, sitting beside him was Tecla Namachanja, the acting chairperson of the wobbling TJRC. Apparently, they are both planning to have racketeers and looters forgiven through the TJRC. Forget about the fact that the law doesn’t allow them to do what they are promising to do. Like the KACC, the TJRC website is so ridiculous that the less said about it the better. If Kenyans thought Ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat was a train-wreck, they should wait until PLO and Namachanja start their comedy.
The other well-paid comedian is Mzalendo Kibunja of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission. The NCIC’s website even has a defective “simplified version” of the National Cohesion and Integration Act, 2008. The NCIC’s core mandate is to ensure that all public entities employ their staff from all Kenyan communities, regions and gender; that not more than a third of its staff is from one tribe; and that there is no discrimination. How long are we going to wait for Kibunja’s report on the composition of public entities? Has he not seen the records of the ministries of finance, internal security, energy and industrialization? Has he examined the staff at the Office of the President, the State Law Office, Central Bank, KPA, Consolidated Bank, KPLC, KIRD and ICDC? If not, why?
If PLO, Namachanja and Kibunja can’t deliver on their mandates, they should ship out and shut up.
Miguna is the PM’s advisor on Coalition Affairs. The views expressed here are his own.
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