Jubilee plots to scuttle Uhuru and Waiguru impeachment motions

The ruling Jubilee coalition has come up with a four-pronged strategy to defeat the Opposition-driven impeachment Motion against President Uhuru Kenyatta.

A section of Jubilee MPs say they will lobby CORD rebels to deny the coalition the 117 legislators required to introduce the Motion in the National Assembly.

They also are in a propaganda overdrive dismissing the impeachment Motion as a “diversion” to get public attention off Jubilee’s political rhetoric that the case at the International Criminal Court against Deputy President William Ruto was ‘fixed’.

With the Opposition riding on the failure by the government to implement the 50-60 per cent court-award pay rise to the teachers to impeach the Head of State, Jubilee is keen to change the national narrative to ICC cases.

Also being swept under the carpet by the witness-coaching and evidence-fixing claims is the spirited attempt by Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter to have Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru impeached over fraudulent deals at the National Youth Service (NYS).

In saving Ms Waiguru, some vocal CORD MPs who did business with the NYS have been threatened with exposure. To save their skin from bad publicity, the two politicians are quietly lobbying their friends not to append their signatures on the Waiguru Motion with a promise that they will also not sign their party’s impeachment of President Kenyatta.

It is a deal similar to the one MPs made in August when the sugar debate was hot: not to touch the sugar report so that they have the unity to approve constitutional deadlines.

Quiet war

The TNA and URP political brigade, who have been in a quiet war over the government’s commitment in rescuing the Deputy President from the ICC, and the failure by the president to re-appoint Cabinet Secretaries cleared of corruption charges, have united to save Waiguru from censure.

National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee Chairman Samuel Chepkonga proposed that the first step in propping up the ICC politics was to file a Motion to investigate the work the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence which concluded its job nearly seven years ago. That was on Wednesday.

The following day, Thursday, there was a reported phone-call the Deputy President made to his parliamentary generals Aden Duale (Garissa Township) and Charles Keter (Kericho) with specific instructions to URP members not to back Alfred Keter in his quest to gather 87 signatures to kick out Waiguru.

However, Ruto’s office denied that the phone call was made.

DP’s spokesperson David Mugonyi told The Standard on Sunday yesterday that it was “purely rumour and idle-talk...by some politicians and shadowy characters” to say Senator Keter and Duale were instructed to denounce the Waiguru Motion.”

“Duale and Keter are experienced politicians, that is why they are leaders in Parliament. They do not need to be told by anyone what to do or what is good for the Jubilee coalition. Those behind those allegations are trying to give a profile to the so-called proposed Motion by dragging the name of the DP. We will not fall for such tactless, pitiable delirious fantasy and useless political maneouvres,” the DP’s office said in a brief response to our inquiry.

Today, Jubilee MPs will be in Kabartonjo, Baringo County, for another dose of anti-ICC rhetoric being fanned by the witness-coaching claims that Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria first revealed. On Tuesday morning, Duale, the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly, plans to hold a parliamentary group meeting to share the agenda. Duale, together with Charles Keter, the Deputy Majority Leader in the Senate, promptly did what their boss had said.

If you ask the Nandi Hills MP and Daniel Maanzo (Makueni), the two who were collecting signatures to kick out Waiguru for presiding over a department under which Sh791 million was stolen, they will talk about “MPs being under immense pressure.”

Mr Maanzo, the legal brain behind Keter’s Motion, said URP MPs had called him on Thursday and withdrawn their names from his list which had 49 MPs.

“They say this thing is very bad for them. They are under immense pressure. Many came and cancelled their names, but if you ask me, I don’t know why Jubilee think they must do everything to save Waiguru. She is lucky the impeachment is not by secret ballot. If it were, she would have been sent home. All we need to do is to get this thing into the House,” he said.

For Keter, whom Duale branded a “renegade” and a “businessman” doing the bidding of the Opposition and some unnamed “dark forces”, the pressure on URP MPs to cancel their signatures and abandon the Waiguru impeachment ship is immense.

“The TNA brothers have called me and told me I should withdraw the Motion against Waiguru for them to support the efforts to remove the DP from the ICC, that sort of blackmail shall not stand. I am not a coward and no one is going to intimidate me,” said Keter.

But Emurua Dikirr MP Johanna Ng’eno wondered “what was so special about Waiguru”.

“Why is it that when Waiguru is touched, the whole government panics? Let us be serious about this fight against corruption...The question of ICC is between us and God, no man can free our brother (the DP). We should not be blackmailed,” said Ng’eno.

But even though Duale and Senator Keter did not confess to be errand boys of the DP, they said the Nandi Hills MP was a lone-wolf, acting alone, without the blessings of the ruling coalition.

The procedure

“When I speak, Jubilee has spoken... none of our members has signed,” said Duale.

Senator Keter added: “Alfred is a Member of Parliament; he doesn’t talk on behalf of URP”.

Deputy Majority Leader in the National Assembly Naomi Shaban, the says the whole charade by politicians is tiring. “All these are shenanigans, they are meant to divert attention from the ICC. It is obvious... Kenyans are getting tired of all these games and political machinations that are going on,” said Dr Shaban.

So, for Jubilee to end CORD’s impeachment campaign, they have to get 18 MPs in the coalition and tell them not to sign the Motion. With 216 MPs firmly in Jubilee’s grip, and CORD’s 133 MPs, if the 18 are convinced to dine with the ruling coalition, then the impeachment Motion will not make to the floor of the House.

“CORD should know that the numbers it came in with in 2013 are not the same numbers it commands today. Impeachment of a President is not a joke!” said Duale.

“You bring it, but the 216 of us, including Alfred Keter are ready for the impeachment Motion. We will deal with it the same way we dealt with the one on Kaimenyi. I have no doubt in my mind!”

So far, none of the Motions –against Waiguru and Kenyatta— has made it to the House Business Committee.