Jubilee, Cord unite to fight settling anglo leasing debt

[MK254]

With DINAH ONDARI
The infamous Anglo Leasing saga for the second week running stole the show in Parliament threatening to overshadow critical matters of budget-making. The issue, which the previous week started off as a rumour with MPs blowing hot and cold on whether to support the payments to ghost companies or not, turned into a full-blown stand off between the National Treasury and the legislators.
The government (read Treasury Cabinet Secretary Rotich Henry) failed to convince Jubilee MPs, who are the majority, to support its request to pay the ‘ghost’ companies. The re-emergence of the Anglo Leasing ‘ghost’ also occasioned a rare show of unity, albeit not deliberate, between the Cord and Jubilee coalitions. Cord, which had rolled up its sleeves to antagonise the government for seeking to pay the unknown companies was disarmed when their colleagues in the Jubilee camp, who were expected to support the government, vowed that they would not sanction such questionable expenditure, much less to faceless people.
Observers now argue that apart from escaping the tag as the House that sanctioned payment of taxpayers’ billions to one of the biggest government scandals in Kenya’s history, the Jubilee MPs, who had initially shown signs of leaning towards Treasury’s position took an about-turn after learning that Cord would have a field day painting the government as corrupt, just like the previous regimes under which the scandalous contracts were signed.
During a Jubilee MPs meeting, held at a city hotel, members were incensed by a statement by the Treasury that the Anglo Leasing debt had to be paid by all means. The Treasury officials could not, however, reveal the identity of the Anglo Leasing directors, prompting the MPs to walk out in protest. The meeting had been called to brief the MPs on the need to approve the payments, but it ended in disarray after the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary and his team failed to answer a barrage of questions raised by the MPs.
The MPs’ left the venue chanting: “can’t pay, won’t pay” and headed for Parliament Buildings leaving the bewildered Treasury officials dumfounded . Outside, Mukurwe-ini MP Kabando wa Kabando said MPs were not ready to be “manipulated”. Nyandarua Women’s Representative Wanjiku Muihia said the government had not involved Parliament when it entered into contracts with questionable characters and therefore the same Parliament should not be used to rubber stamp the payments. She hit out at claims that Kenyans’ property abroad could be attached over failure to pay.
“If ghosts are operating the companies then the same ghosts should attach the properties,” said Muihia. Some of the questions that the Treasury officials were unable to answer, according to several MPs, revolved around who had signed the contracts on behalf of Kenya and who the directors of the companies in question were. “What type of goods or services were procured?” posed one MP.
At some point, according to one MP, tempers flared when a Treasury official told the MPs they had no option but to approve the payments. He had to apologise immediately. Laikipia East MP Anthony Kimaru said most members felt the government was negotiating with shady characters and going ahead to award them. But Kiharu MP Irungu Kang’ata, also a lawyer by profession, said from a judicial viewpoint, the government ought to pay for the contracts that were breached.
And at the Cord meeting, 80 members were unanimous that the payments should not be honoured at any cost, saying the country was not ready to pay Sh1.4 billion to “ghosts”. Led by the Minority Leader Francis Nyenze, the MPs said Kenyans were already over-burdened with punitive VAT and were not ready to lose more money to phantom companies such as Universal Satspace and First Mercantile Securities Corporation.
“Kenya must seek mutual legal assistance both in Geneva and London to apprehend the culprits behind the Anglo Leasing scandal and recover all lost monies,” said Nyenze. Cord co-principal Moses Wetang’ula reiterated that they took a common commitment to stand with Kenyans and to ensure that no taxpayers’ hard-earned money would be used to pay for non-rendered services.
“We want to stand on the right side of history and we will not allow the government to let Kenyans pay for the burdens of poor policies,” he said. Public Accounts Committee chairman Ababu Namwamba took on Rotich over claims that Kenyan missions abroad could be attached should the payments not be settled as directed by the International Arbitration Court.

Jubilee, Cord unite to fight settling anglo leasing debt | The People

 

[Jammu Africa]

I do not know what the Attorney general of Kenya was up to.

The whole blame should lie on him. He is the one who brought
the whole matter claiming that the courts?????had decided
that Kenya must pay the amount which in total was or is
1.4 billion Kshs.

Otherwise, said the AG, Kenya risked its assents abroad
being sold to recover the money.

I and many could not believe what the AG was saying.

This is the same AG who many times claimed that Kenya
was a sovereign country and it had its own rules and here
the same person is talking about other laws in foreign lands
which can even get hold of Kenyan government assets and
do whatever they want with it????

This is 2014 and the attorney general must wake up and face the
day, that we will never support what is in the darkness.

But the time i saw Kabando wa Kabando shouting with his Jubilee comrades,
saying that they were not willing to be part of anything to do will the dreaded
Anglo-leasing, i jumped up and down in happiness because i had been in big
trouble, for the first time, i was not getting what was happening in Kenya.

Now the whole thing seems to have passed,,waiting to see what the AG
was true. For he has many questions to answer.

If the he cannot do his work right, the best thing he can do is quietly resign for we
are not ready to entertain, upuzi.

I hail the Jubilee MP's for standing up and doing the right
thing, this is what we want in this country, mbaya ni mbaya
hata kama ni baba yangu anafanya.

Then the CORD members held a press conference after the storming out
of the jubilee members of the meeting with the cabinet secretary, saying
that the jubilee members had refused to support the government simply
because, they, the Jubilee,had sensed that if the motion was to be
brought into parliament, the CORD side would have brought it down.

I asked myself, using what miracles?????

But then,,,just felt sorry for them, for this was becoming very childish.

 

[MK254]

I do not know what the Attorney general of Kenya was up to.

The whole blame should lie on him. He is the one who brought
the whole matter claiming that the courts?????had decided
that Kenya must pay the amount which in total was or is
1.4 billion Kshs.

Otherwise, said the AG, Kenya risked its assents abroad
being sold to recover the money.

I and many could not believe what the AG was saying.

This is the same AG who many times claimed that Kenya
was a sovereign country and it had its own rules and here
the same person is talking about other laws in foreign lands
which can even get hold of Kenyan government assets and
do whatever they want with it????

This is 2014 and the attorney general must wake up and face the
day, that we will never support what is in the darkness.

But the time i saw Kabando wa Kabando shouting with his Jubilee comrades,
saying that they were not willing to be part of anything to do will the dreaded
Anglo-leasing, i jumped up and down in happiness because i had been in big
trouble, for the first time, i was not getting what was happening in Kenya.

Now the whole thing seems to have passed,,waiting to see what the AG
was true. For he has many questions to answer.

If the he cannot do his work right, the best thing he can do is quietly resign for we
are not ready to entertain, upuzi.

I hail the Jubilee MP's for standing up and doing the right
thing, this is what we want in this country, mbaya ni mbaya
hata kama ni baba yangu anafanya.

Then the CORD members held a press conference after the storming out
of the jubilee members of the meeting with the cabinet secretary, saying
that the jubilee members had refused to support the government simply
because, they, the Jubilee,had sensed that if the motion was to be
brought into parliament, the CORD side would have brought it down.

I asked myself, using what miracles?????

But then,,,just felt sorry for them, for this was becoming very childish.

I am yet to get concrete facts before commenting properly on this issue, but what I know is, if the previous regimes committed government into paying this, then has to be paid, else we will be subjected into humiliation and lose even more. Are you aware about a Kenyan who wants to seize property belonging to Tanzania embassy because they failed to pay him when he supplied them with rice.

 

[Reginald12]

I am yet to get concrete facts before commenting properly on this issue, but what I know is, if the previous regimes committed government into paying this, then has to be paid, else we will be subjected into humiliation and lose even more. Are you aware about a Kenyan who wants to seize property belonging to Tanzania embassy because they failed to pay him when he supplied them with rice.

When Kibaki took over and cancelled a Moi era tender for the supply of police vehicles, didn't the Kenyan govt pay for vehicles that were never delivered?

In my small way of thinking, I guess it would be better to go ahead and receive the goods irregularly tendered and punish the culprits later rather than cancel contracts and end up paying anyway for goods not delivered.

Auditor General Reveals How Kenya Government Paid Us$ 6 Million for Police Vehicles That Were Never Delivered and That Kenya Is Still Liable to Pay More Because of the Attorney General’s Negligent Advice. | Blog Portal