Marianne Kitany, Chief of Staff at the Office of the Deputy President, during a Parliamentary Accounts Committee hearing. Her name and of many URP leaders are said to be in the highly-anticipated graft list. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUP
In Summary
Partnership between TNA and URP hangs in the balance after State of the Nation call to resign
The glue that holds President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto together is the same that now threatens to tear them apart following the disclosure to Parliament of a confidential list of public officials on anti-corruption radar.
The purge ordered by President Kenyatta during his State of the Nation address from Parliament buildings on Thursday leaves the partnership between TNA and URP hanging in the balance.
This comes after the ICC ties between the two were drastically loosened after President Kenyatta’s case at The Hague collapsed.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto came together under the umbrella of the Jubilee coalition mainly to fend off crimes against humanity charges against them at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
At the time, they mobilised their allies in Parliament to water down the Leadership and Integrity Act which operationalises Chapter 6 provisions of the Constitution.
Thus, Parliament opened the way for public officials charged with serious crimes to remain in office until convicted.
Since the President’s case at the ICC has been terminated, there is a feeling that the bond between the two leaders could be weakening, given that President Kenyatta has less baggage than Mr Ruto, whose case has proceeded at The Hague unsurprisingly smoothly.
The list compiled by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has names of 175 Cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries, parastatal chiefs, MPs and other public officials.
In fact, the list hit very close to the heart of the Ruto wing after the name of his chief of staff, Ms Marianne Kittany, appeared. The inclusion of Ms Kittany’s in the list is comparable to former International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo’s initial list of six post-election violence suspects — among them President Kibaki’s right-hand man and then head of public service, Mr Francis Muthaura.
Other URP-allied officials in the list are Agriculture and Livestock Secretary Felix Koskei, who offered to stand down yesterday after initially appearing to demur. Also said to be in the list — whose full details will be known on Tuesday when it is tabled in Parliament — is the Investment Secretary in the National Treasury, Ms Esther Koimett.
The list also contains names of TNA-allied officials and MPs, as well as opposition MPs and governors, the majority are said to be allied to URP.
Principal Secretary Mutea Iringo and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia, who are from Central region, as is the President, are carryovers from the Kibaki regime and not so close personally to Mr Kenyatta.
As such, the feeling in the URP camp is that TNA, to which President Kenyatta belongs, has declared war on them despite helping him to ascend to the highest political office in the land.
For political scientist Adams Oloo, the President may not have been targeting URP as such, but the opposition Cord.
“Before he released the report, he must have shared it with the Deputy President. I think the President was targeting the Opposition, which has been accusing his government of abetting corruption... by releasing a list with names of opposition leaders. In so doing, he was saving his coalition from being vilified,” said Dr Oloo.
Although the government appears to have tempered its diplomatic charm offensive to free Mr Ruto from the ICC burden, the President maintains that his government is committed to seeing his deputy absolved from the ICC case.
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