Three MPs in court as Wetang'ula faces hostile House

By Standard Team

Embattled Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula was in Parliament as a House Committee that has been tracking the footprints of inappropriate and questionable conduct in his ministry recommended he step aside.

The committee pitched its case on a 10-point argument on why the minister should step aside to pave way for independent investigations into his conduct and that of his subordinates. They were all accused of shifting goalposts, misleading the country, acting against the interests of

Kenya, and subjecting the country to a loss of colossal sums of money. The committee gave a run-down of suspicious project variations, property purchases, and re-development in five international capitals — Tokyo (Japan), Cairo (Egypt), Islamabad (Pakistan), Brussels (Belgium), and Abuja (Nigeria).

In court, Eldoret North MP William Ruto and several co-accused including Joshua Kulei and Baringo Central MP, Sammy Mwaita, were on the dock facing a Sh96 million-land fraud case against them. Mr Ruto, who claimed outside the court last week the case against him was politically motivated, was returning following the court ruling on his constitutional reference that the case should proceed to full hearing.

William Ruto, in the dock at the Nairobi Law Courts over the Sh96million fraud case. PHOTOS: STANDARD]

In another court, Nairobi Mayor Geoffrey Majiwa Geoffrey was in the dock, handcuffed with land surveyor Cephas Kamande Mwaura, and valuer Boniface Misera, over the Sh283 million City Council cemetery saga.

Hate speech

The mayor had spent the night in a police cell following his arrest at his Akila Estate home on Monday morning.

Also in court, as the wheels of justice rolled, were three MPs — suspended Assistant Minister Wilfred Machage, Mount Elgon MP, Fred Kapondi, and Cherangany legislator, Joshua Kuttuny — facing ‘hate speech’ charges.

Elsewhere, Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgey was in a different ‘court’ like Wetang’ula — explaining before the House Committee on Equal Opportunities his appointment of Joseph Kosgei to head Kenya Bureau of Standards was not motivated by tribalism and favouritism.

It was the day the wheels of justice, often claimed to be so slow, turned — and in the dock were notable personalities in public life.

At the other end, Mr Wetang’ula faced the House, where he was the subject of debate, fighting to clear his name.

As debate progressed, perception rose he could, like Transport Minister Amos Kimunya, who incidentally sat next to him, be forced to swallow humble pie and step aside to pave the way for a deeper probe into what actually transpired in Kenya’s missions abroad.

Mr Kimunya was then Finance Minister and had to step aside following allegations he presided over irregular sale of the then Grand Regency Hotel to Libyan investors.