Is anything the matter with Mungatana the crocodile eater?

By JOHN NGIRACHU, jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com and EMEKA-MAYAKA GEKARA, gmayaka@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, June 25 2011 at 21:35

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A day after Narc-Kenya leader Martha Karua launched her bid for the presidency, a cartoonist portrayed her in a wedding gown, with a young man holding onto the train.

Ms Karua’s announcement came at about the same time with the much-hyped British royal wedding, and it was not lost on observers that the young man was Mr Danson Mungatana, the youthful MP for Garsen who is Narc-Kenya’s secretary-general.

The combative former minister for Justice has had a dependable ally in the man from Tana River who once boasted, at the height of a war of words with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, that they had crocodiles for dinner where he came from.

Yet judging by his contributions in Parliament, Mr Mungatana is not merely the man that would hold Ms Karua’s train as she marches to State House.

The Garsen MP attracted the country’s attention immediately he was elected to Parliament in 2002.

Former Vice-President Kijana Wamalwa described the Mungatana group of first-time MPs as “children of the Narc Revolution”.

The new crop of politicians were packaged as the face and implementers of the Narc dream of a country determined to break from the Kanu era, which was characterised by tribalism, corruption and intolerance.

These included politicians such as Prof Kivutha Kibwana, Peter Munya, Boni Khalwale, Kilemi Mwiria and Cecily Mbarire.

With his warm candour, Mr Mungatana wormed his way into the hearts of key politicians in the coalition such as Mr Wamalwa.

It will be remembered that the VP chose the MP among his four groomsmen during his colourful 2003 wedding. Others were Labour minister John Munyes, Sirisia MP Moses Wetang’ula and nominated MP Musikari Kombo as the best man.

But with the rift in the grand coalition pitting President Kibaki and Mr Odinga over the pre-2002 election deal, Mr Mungatana aligned himself with Kibaki defenders such as Gichugu MP Martha Karua.

The lawyer distinguished himself as one of Mr Odinga’s harshest critics and occupied a place on the frontline in President Kibaki’s re-election campaign.

Indeed, he was among the group of PNU politicians who vigorously defended President Kibaki’s vote count during the acrimonious tallying session at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre.

In one memorable picture, an angry Mungatana was captured leading Mr Odinga out of the tallying hall accompanied by police officers.

But perhaps the biggest highlight of Mr Mungatana’s career was his starring role in the writing of the new Constitution.

The Garsen MP was a member of the Abdikadir Mohammed Parliamentary Select Committee on the Constitution.

Indeed, the Hansard of the committee’s deliberations in Naivasha shows the Garsen MP was instrumental in the adoption of a presidential system of government, which was also favoured by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.

Mr Mungatana made a presentation to the committee and suggested the creation of posts such as Majority Leader. He is known in Parliament as an astute debater, applying his good grasp of the slippery law and the observant eye of a brilliant lawyer to keep the government on its toes.

He is usually joined on the side of the backbenchers by Ms Karua, Dr Boni Khalwale, ODM rebel Isaac Ruto, Budalang’i’s Ababu Namwamba, Mr Gitobu Imanyara of Imenti Central and Mr Charles Kilonzo, the youthful MP for Yatta.

University of Nairobi lecturer Prof Chris Wanjala, however, argues that it is difficult to define Mr Mungatana’s political philosophy.

“He has been effective in attacking individual politicians and such leaders usually don’t have mileage in issue-oriented politics,” said Prof Wanjala.
It is perhaps for this reason that Mr Odinga once dismissively asked, “Who is this Mungatana?”

On Thursday, March 31, Mr Mungatana’s Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Bill came up for First Reading.

While his fellow backbenchers prefer motions which merely compel the government to implement them without going into how it should be done, Mr Mungatana’s Bill would have cast in stone the vetting process nominees to crucial positions now have to go through.

The Bill was, however, significant enough to catch the eye of the Justice minister, who approached and had Mr Mungatana withdraw it for consultations.

It transpired later that it would have been best presented as a government Bill and Mr Mutula Kilonzo has since indicated that he would be seeking Mr Mungatana to allow him to take control of the Bill.

Mr Mungatana was also forced to withdraw a Bill whose enactment would have led to the repeal of the law through which the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission was established.

The light-skinned lawyer has a knack for selecting the perfect suit and the perfect tie to go with it and stood out at the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitution Review’s Naivasha retreat for showing up in a suit while his colleagues preferred the T-shirts and short-sleeved shirts more fitting for informal meetings.

Mr Mungatana crossed the floor to the backbench on April 8, 2009, when he quit his post as Medical Services assistant minister.

It was a day after Ms Karua left her post as Justice minister and it was seen by some as the start of the gradual fading away into oblivion of the two.

But fade away they did not, courtesy of their robust contributions to debate and the eloquence and keen intellect that grabs journalists’ attention and gets the viewer watching.

This year when President Kibaki addressed Parliament, Mr Mungatana was among the MPs who accused the President of ignoring the needs of the poor.

“We’re not living like we did five years ago. Life is much more difficult, much more expensive,” he said.

He has also been critical of the apparent alliance between Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto, which he described as informed by politics that is “backward, retrogressive, behind and dead and buried”.

He is a member of the Budget Committee, which was locked in a battle with Mr Kenyatta, the Finance minister, over the interpretation of the Constitution in relation to the reading of the Budget.

At the time, he warned the Treasury of “a battle” should it fail to set aside funds for the 47 counties: “We are upset by the flawed interpretation that funds for counties and equalisation funds should only be set aside after 2013. This is unacceptable.”

But the question that has been asked many a time in the corridors of Parliament over the last two months has been “Where is Danson Mungatana?”
The question intensified when the vetting of Dr Willy Mutunga (Chief Justice), Nancy Baraza (Deputy Chief Justice) and Keriako Tobiko (Director of Public Prosecutions) by the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee began.

Going by his record in the House, Mr Mungatana would have been expected to side with Ms Karua, Mr Namwamba and Gwassi MP John Mbadi in opposing the approval of Mr Tobiko, which sparked a fierce debate.

There have been suggestions that Mr Mungatana’s absence is related to financial matters and efforts to reach him on the mobile phone have so far been unsuccessful.

The allegations of financial trouble emerged on April 14 when the City Council of Nairobi published an advertisement announcing its intention to recover millions it was owed in land rates accumulated over several years.

Mr Mungatana was listed as owing Sh647,703, a large percentage of the Sh800,000 average amount each MP is estimated to receive monthly as salary plus allowances.

Although he has kept away from the plenary sessions of Parliament, where he last contributed on April 27, Mr Mungatana has attended meetings of the Budget Committee.

He also helped campaign for Mr Brian Weke, the Narc-Kenya candidate for Kamukunji in the by-election initially scheduled for May 23. He criticised the ruling by Justice Daniel Musinga on May 20 which has kept the by-election in limbo.

Prof Wanjala said Mr Mungatana had distinguished himself as a critical political voice from the Coast Province but his status has diminished.

“He had been further re-energised as a good lieutenant, student and political companion of the versatile Martha Karua but you can’t say the same of him any more,” he noted.

“One cannot tell whether his sudden quietness emanates from problems in his constituency, social or family life,” says the literary scholar.
Thus the question: where is Danson Buya Mungatana?