Kombo: There is no tribal angle to Wetang’ula’s exit

Ford Kenya chairman Musikari Kombo dismissed remarks that the Bukusu sub-tribe was being targeted following Mr Wetang’ula’s ouster as “very cheap politics, extremely cheap politics”. Photo/FILE

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com AND GEKARA MAYAKA gmayaka@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, October 30 2010 at 21:15

Ford-Kenya chairman Musikari Kombo on Saturday dismissed allegations that the Tokyo embassy scandal report was based on malice and rumours.

Speaking to the Sunday Nation, Mr Kombo appeared to contradict the embattled former Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula who had claimed that the report’s recommendation he step down was based on a political witch hunt.

Very amusing

“It is very amusing when people bring in extraneous reasoning to a matter that is strictly parliamentary business. I have enough respect for parliamentary committees,” said Mr Kombo.

Mr Wetang’ula had dismissed the committee’s report as laced with malice, rumours, innuendo, conjecture and crafted “in the most unprofessional character”.

Mr Kombo also dismissed remarks that the Bukusu sub-tribe was being targeted following Mr Wetang’ula’s ouster as “very cheap politics, extremely cheap politics”.

The Ford-Kenya chairman further insisted that his party had not lost a slot in the Cabinet.

“(Mr Wetang’ula) has not been sacked, and he has not resigned. He just stepped aside. That does not mean he is out of the Cabinet.

“So I really don’t know where this notion that a Ford-Kenya member ought to have been appointed to replace him is coming from,” said Mr Kombo, a former Cabinet minister.

He said there was no cause for alarm just because Prof George Saitoti, the PNU chairman, had been appointed to act in the Foreign Affairs docket.

“It is the right of the President to appoint anyone to any ministry. We didn’t sit down and say that as a party we want the Foreign Affairs docket,” he said.

Sensing defeat

When MPs were debating the report regarding suspicious dealings concerning five embassies, Kimilili MP Eseli Simiyu sought to withdraw a proposed amendment to expunge Mr Wetang’ula’s name from the report.

Perhaps sensing defeat, Dr Eseli said he did not want to make amendments to the report because it was prepared by “some of the best brains we have in the House, including my neighbour, Eugene Wamalwa.”

Mr Wamalwa, the Saboti MP, is a member of the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee that asked Mr Wetang’ula to resign. It is now emerging that Mr Wetang’ula’s supporters are seeing Mr Wamalwa’s hand behind the former minister’s woes.

The Kimilili MP had claimed that Mr Wetang’ula was forced out of his ministry by politicians eyeing the presidency in 2012 who see him as a threat.

He said the “traitor” MP had been bought by politicians from a certain region to finish his colleagues. “There is a traitor among us who has teamed up with bad people to backstab key leaders within the Bukusu,” he said.

Both Mr Wetang’ula and Mr Wamalwa have declared they will contest the presidency in 2012 and have been fighting for political supremacy among the Bukusu community as well as for the chairmanship of Ford-Kenya.

And in Bungoma, councillors led by Meshack Museveni accused parliamentary committees of being used to settle political scores. However, on Saturday, Mr Kombo said, “Bukusus have never been traitors. We are a very proud community.”