It's witch-hunt, CORD says of Wetangula saga

Opposition leaders have lashed out at the government following revelations that Senate Leader of Minority Moses Wetang’ula is still under probe for alleged electoral malpractices in the run-up to the 2013 polls.

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) yesterday launched a scathing attack on the Jubilee coalition, which it accused of witch-hunt after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) received a file from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations recommending the prosecution of Wetang’ula.

Contacted by The Standard on Sunday, the Bungoma senator and CORD co-principal expressed shock over reports that detectives want him arrested and charged.

Wetang’ula linked his present woes to his tough stance and criticism of the government.

“I am not worried at all. If anybody wants to use threats of prosecution as a means of gagging, intimidating and eventually silencing alternative voices, some of us will only go silent when we die,” he told The Standard on Sunday, yesterday.

He continued: “No amount of intimidation will deter us from speaking the truth about our country and our people if that is what they are looking for. Because as the Luhya saying goes ‘lighting does not strike the same tree twice’, this will not be an exception to the rules.”

Political intimidation

Senators Mutula Kilonzo Jnr (Makueni), Boy Juma Boy (Kwale) and National Assembly Minority Deputy Whip Chris Wamalwa (Kiminini) attributed Wetang'ula’s problems to his threats to rally Opposition MPs to impeach President Uhuru Kenyatta for breaching the Constitution.

They termed the move by the police seeking to arrest and charge Wetang’ula with electoral offence, as exclusively reported by The Standard on Saturday yesterday, as politically instigated and aimed at instilling fear in Opposition leaders.

The Bungoma Senator wondered why it took the police too long to re-open the case, whose file the DPP had ordered closed for lack of evidence to sustain prosecution.

“This is political intimidation and I will not be cowed because the DPP ordered investigations into this matter. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) investigated, concluded and gave him a report, stating that there was no basis in the allegations,” said the senator.

He recalled: “The DPP publicly announced the closure of the file and this is what I know. I take a queue in the late Masinde Muliro ideologies that in politics, there are three things one must be ready to face. A politician must be ready to be poor and bankrupted, go to jail and be killed. I am ready for the three.”

Senator Boy weighed in on the matter and cautioned the Jubilee Government against using under hand tactics to tame vocal Opposition leaders.

“This is a Jubilee game to try to instill fear among us. Wetangu’la’s statement on the impeachment of the President has now revived a closed case. He has been on the forefront in advancing opposition agenda, these intimidation tactics will not deter us,” said the Kwale senator.

Kilonzo Jnr concurred with his Senate counterpart, saying the timing of the new developments is suspect.

“When were the fresh investigations done? The people who were accused of taking bribes on the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) are still at large and the people who gave the bribes are in jail,” said Jnr.

Wamalwa condemned the planned arrest, terming it a witch-hunt. “They are witch-hunting him for calling for the impeachment of the President. This is a way of intimidating him and is well suited to fit the 2017 elections,” said Wamalwa.

“We will soon release a programme of demonstrations to protest against the Jubilee government”.

The Kiminini MP asked MPs to priorotise the education crisis once the National Assembly resumes later this month.

Kisumu West MP Olago Aluoch said the government cannot intimidate the Opposition into silence over runaway corruption.

“Kenyans can see through the Jubilee smokescreen on their desire to charge Wetang’ula. The timing has betrayed them. It’s meant to intimidate him into toning down his criticism of the government on corruption and the move to commence impeachment proceedings against the President,” he said.

Other Opposition MPs who reacted to claims that the police were looking for Wetang’ula are senators Harold Kipchumba (nominated), Moses Kajwang (Homa Bay) and MPs John Mbadi (Suba), Timothy Bosire (Kitutu Masaba), David Ochieng (Ugenya), Shakeel Shabbir (Kisumu East) and Fred Outa (Nyando).

The legislators accused the government of engaging in diversionary tactics from the real challenges affecting the country, particularly the ongoing teachers strike and rampant corruption.

“The Jubilee government must desist from using the police to pursue vendetta and witch hunt against CORD leaders,” said Kajwang.

“Wetang'ula had been cleared by the courts. He went for a re-election and won. Why did they allow him to run if he still had a case pending in court?” posed Shabbir.

Bosire accused the government of trying to instill fear in the Opposition to distract them from their oversight role. “The move reminds us of the old days when dissenters were silenced,” he said.

Impeachment motion

Outa said the threats to arrest Wetang’ula will not stop CORD’s plans to initiate a motion  to impeach President Kenyatta. “We will still go ahead and impeach the President,” said Outa.

MPs Sylvance Osele (Kabondo Kasipul) and Opondo Kaluma (Homa Bay Town) also weighed into the matter, saying the state only wants to weaken the Opposition by fixing its senior most parliamentary leader.

Kaluma accused the government of using the police to harass its critics.

Additional reporting by Rushdie Oudia