Parliament’s investigations on IEBC and the Judiciary stall as crucial house committee’s fate hangs in the balance

The on-going scrutiny of a forensic audit report into the multi-billion purchase of bogus equipment by the electoral commission and the procurement queries within the Judiciary will be in limbo for the next three weeks following the suspension of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Insiders in the committee familiar with the Auditor General’s verdict on the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) plus that on procurement failures within the Judiciary told The Standard on Sunday that PAC had planned to conclude hearings on the report beginning next week.

The watchdog committee has been seeking answers on how millions of taxpayers' money was lost or wasted in apparent irregular expenditure and kickbacks. PAC also probed whether the equipment supplied was sub-standard or tampered with and programmed to fail in the March 4, 2013 General Election.

National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale (Garissa Township) and Deputy Minority Whip Chris Wamalwa (Kiminini) believe that these two investigations ought to be put aside until the credibility of the PAC is ascertained and its integrity restored.

In an interview with The Standard on Sunday, Duale said there was no point having a watchdog committee tainted with corruption “pretending to be investigating others in regard to corruption”.

“The committee had no moral high-ground. If they point fingers, with the allegations that we have heard, someone else will point the fingers back. They need to clear their names first. It is only three weeks and then they will be back,” the Majority Leader said.

The question has been why the committee has for the last 18 months failed to table the report on the IEBC procurement.

The PAC has gone round the world — to Canada, France, India and South Africa — to meet some of the suppliers of the IEBC equipment and the players in the tendering. Those foreign trips, and the composition of the committee delegations in the tours, has also been a bone of contention and is part of the grounds on which 13 MPs had voted to oust their chairman Ababu Namwamba (Budalang’i) from the committee.

“The issues that led to the suspension are more weighty than what they were investigating. This is not something light, because PAC is not an ordinary committee. It is the most important committee that handles parliamentary oversight on behalf of all MPs. If we have any queries about it, and we have raised very serious questions, those must be answered first,” said Duale.

The other allegation is that an MP within the PAC was given Sh4 million to scuttle the findings in the Judiciary report. The MPs accuse Namwamba of leaking the details of that bribe to the Nairobi Law Monthly, but the PAC chair has denied the allegations while his accusers failed to prove them.

Duale and Wamalwa, speaking separately to The Standard on Sunday, said the lead investigator, Moses Cheboi (Kuresoi North, Kanu), and the Committee on Privileges will have to unearth the complaints of corruption that have been levelled against Namwamba, and those that the PAC chair has levelled against six of his colleagues.

“These are very serious allegations. Inasmuch as I was shocked with the suspension of the committee, I think it was a very bold and wise decision by the Speaker to uproot the corruption within it. That is very important for the integrity of Parliament,” said Wamalwa. The Deputy Minority Whip said the Committee on Privileges must deal with “leadership failures” within the committee.

“Cheboi has to be very objective to quash all these rumours about a political witch-hunt. They have to table a report that leaves no doubt that all these allegations were about leadership failures and the push for accountability,” Wamalwa said.

The committee has been under the spotlight after some members confessed that they received bribes to alter the findings of their report into the spending of a confidential vote within the Office of the President and on the luxury jet hired for the Deputy President in 2013.

Namwamba said his committee had been above-board in its investigations into the controversial hiring of the jet and in the audit of the Office of the President. He asked the Speaker to review the reports and find out if there was a discrepancy in the findings, the evidence adduced and the recommendations.

“If indeed our concern is the integrity of this House in its totality and not political brinkmanship, let us go the whole hog and look at the integrity of this House. Let us look at all the information against all the committees. By doing so, we’ll defeat the notion that this is merely a political witch-hunt. The handling of PAC has appeared as a political witch-hunt within CORD, within my own party ODM, and it has also been latched onto  by our rivals,” said Namwamba.