Three MPs on the spot over Saitoti probe order

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Nominated MP Rachel Shebesh. Photo/FILE 

By VINCENT AGOYA vagoya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, October 12  2012 at  23:30

IN SUMMARY

• Midiwo, Shebesh and Konchellah rejected summons, citing House rights

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Three MPs who claimed in Parliament they knew the cause of the helicopter crash in which Internal Security minister George Saitoti was killed were on Friday criticised for declining to divulge information to a team investigating the accident.

Prof Saitoti’s family, through lawyer Fredrick Ngatia, said it was “most callous to invoke speech privilege and withhold information from the commission.

Parliament, through lawyers Antony Njoroge and Sherif Sam Mwendwa, had invoked the parliamentary immunity and speech privilege clause to block the commission from compelling the MPs to give evidence. They said it would be an affront to Parliament’s freedom of debate.

The commission appeared to be walking a tight rope as it tried to avoid collision with Parliament while heeding to calls that the MPs appear.

Lawyers insisted that commission chairperson Kalpana Rawal summons the MPs.

The commission had invited Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo, nominated MP Rachel Shebesh and Kilgoris MP Gideon Konchellah to volunteer any information they had about the crash.

The MPs and some of their colleagues had claimed drug barons were behind the accident.

Ms Lucy Kambuni, a counsel for the commission, said the MPs’ refusal to give evidence amounted “not only to contempt of this judicial process but to the country.”

She said the MPs should lead by example.

“It goes beyond the level of powers to issue summons or not, immunity and all, but boils down to individual principles of integrity and accountability. If there was a criminal hand, then this information cannot be withheld because of parliamentary immunity. It would be an abuse of justice,” she said.

Lawyer Evans Monari, for the police, said the MPs would be violating the Constitution if they refused to testify.

He said the clause invoked by Parliament went against the grain of collective responsibility.

The commission deferred the ruling on whether to summon the MPs to Monday.