WILLIAM OERI | NATION: Elections staff direct voters at the Moi Avenue Polling Station during the parliamentary by-elections in Starehe Constituency on September 20, 2010.
By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, July 26 2011 at 12:23
Posted Tuesday, July 26 2011 at 12:23
The political past of President Kibaki’s nominees to the selection panel that will pick the next electoral commission--came to haunt the nominees as they appeared before Parliament’s Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC).
University don Marion Wanjiku Mutugi was queried about her past position in the Democratic Party (DP), where she served as the deputy secretary general prior to the 2007 elections.
She vied for the parliamentary seat in Ndia and lost.
On Tuesday, she said she will not vie for any elective post in future.
“I do not intend to vie for any elective political office next year or any other year,” said Prof Mutugi, insisting that her decision to quit politics was made in January 2008 after consultation with her family and close friends.
She said that should she be picked to sit in the selection panel, she will be impartial in carrying out her duty in picking commissioners to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
“As a professor, I actually hold the future in my hands. By the stroke of a pen a student passes or fails. If I have not interfered with that one, I don’t think that my participation in politics for one year in my 51 years of life will interfere with (my work)...I only have one thing that influences what I do: my conscience,” said Prof Mutugi.
Another of the President’s nominees, Mr Mwanyengela Ngali, was also on the dock for his party-hopping in 2002 and in 2007 polls.
“In this country, Parties are not permanent, they evolve. I started in DP, Narc came in, I won, I was denied nomination certificate, so at the last minute Kanu came in and handed me a window, so I accepted the Kanu offer, but my heart was not in Kanu, it was a matter of playing ball. After that, I went to where my heart was, to Narc,” he said in response to MPs’ queries about his loyalty to parties and his style of politics.
He is now in Narc Kenya and the branch chairman in Wundanyi where he vied in the last two elections and lost on both occasions.
The career diplomat was cornered to explain his tenure at the Ministry of Energy when scandals in the Kenya Pipeline, and the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (now Kenya Power).
Mr Mwanyengela said he opposed the offer to Kenya Pipeline to buy land in Ngong Forest, but that the controversial deal went ahead after his tenure.
He also denied knowing the details behind the KPLC scandal that has seen former Energy minister Chris Okemo and former KPLC boss Samuel Gichuru facing extradition to Jersey for money laundering charges.
The diplomat who has served in Canada, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Uganda and other countries said he hasn’t decided yet if he’ll vie in next year’s polls, but if he “gets money”, then he’ll plunge into the politics.
The MPs questioned his ethical standpoint based on the fact that he’ll be picking a referee for a match in which he’ll be a player.
“I didn’t apply for this job, but I was pleasantly surprised that my name was announced. I believe that jointly with others I can deliver,” said Mr Mwanyengela
Prime Minister’s nominee Ekuru Aukot spent time telling MPs about his optimism to the new Constitution.
He said his criteria for the next commissioners in the IEBC will be those who “appreciate the Kriegler Report on 2007 elections and the Waki Report on the post-election violence”.
He said that all candidates will have to be clean and appreciate the leadership and integrity chapter in the Constitution and also be technologically savvy to push for the diaspora voting in the next polls.
“I wouldn’t expect a common criminal to apply to be a commissioner. I want to see an institution that’s self executing ,” said Ms Aukot.
Dr Aukot, a former director of the Committee of Experts that drafted the Constitution, said he had been “received a lot of bashing” since his appointment by the Prime Minister, but said that the nomination was not political.
“I was nominated based on the fact that he is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kenya, not ODM. I was nominated by mandate given to him by the Constitution, just like Kibaki nominated me to the Council of the University of Nairobi last week; I am not Kikuyu or PNU. I think it is based on merit. My record at the CoE speaks for itself,” said Dr Aukot.
However, another of the PM’s nominees, Ms Rosa Akinyi Buyu, admitted that she was a member of ODM and even said that she might vie to be an MP in the next polls.
She vied in Kisumu Town West in 2007 on a Narc ticket and lost to ODM’s Olago Aluoch.
She said she’ll not let her party affiliation influence her job at the commission. She says she’s a “great believer” of this Constitution.
“The way I view the selection panel, it is not the body that will appoint commissioners. The panel will act as a sieve. It is not appointing commissioners. It will offer three candidates for the seat of chairman; only one will be picked. It will pick 13 commissioners, out of which eight will be picked. The appointing agent will be National Assembly,” she said.
Her tenure at the defunct Independent Interim Boundaries Review Commission caught up with her as MPs asked her to explain the debacle over constituency boundaries for the 80 new constituencies.
She said that dissent was good, only that it was handled poorly.
“IIBRC got 90 per cent of the job done,” she said.
She revealed that she was paid Sh9 million gratuity for serving the IIBRC for 18 months.
Up next are the nominees of the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) High Court judge Isaac Lenaola and Magistrate Emily Ominde.
Also those of the Association of Professional Societies of East African Dr William Okello Ogara and Ms Sophie Njeri Moturi, plus the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission advisory board sent Ms Irene Cheptoo Keino and Mr Charles Kariuki Wambugu.
Names expected in Parliament on Wednesday afternoon or on Thursday.
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