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A few weeks Parliament ago rejected the report of Public Accounts Committee that revealed a 1.8 billion shilling loss of taxpayer money as a result of a controversial tendering process in the country's currency-printing contract. In rejecting the report MPs also cleared Minster Amos Kimunya and the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Njuguna Ndung’u, of their alleged involvement in the deal, and rejected the Committee's recommendation that neither of the two were fit to hold public office. According to newspaper reports Parliament had attempted to have the names of the two expunged from the report, but later rejected the report wholesale.
On the heels of Parliament’s rejection of the report the head of the Public Accounts Committee, Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale, accused his fellow MPs of accepting bribes to “kill the report”, alleging that MPs received 30,000 shillings a piece to reject the report.
Following the allegations of bribery made by the Ikolomani MP against them, several MPs have requested that the Speaker of the House sanction the MP. According to a report in the Nation “lawmakers said the allegations that they had been paid to throw out the report had cast aspersions on their dignity and asked the Speaker to intervene so that their standing in the eyes of public is restored.”
Allegations of bribery are serious and those accused of bribery whether in Parliament or not should be subject to the full force of the law. So it is surprising, or maybe not so surprising, that MPs instead of requiring that the allegations be investigated, would ask instead that the MP making the allegations be sanctioned/silenced to save their image with the public. If anything this action in and of itself casts aspersions on the dignity of the House and reinforces in the public’s collective consciousness that MPs are looking after their own interests rather than the electorates.
Also this is not the first time, let alone the first time this year, that MPs have accused by their fellow MPs of accepting bribes to alter/reject reports, or support particular legislative, or policy positions. Earlier in the year Joint Government Whip, Jakoyo Midiwo, accused Members of Parliament of allegedly taking bribes to either pass or defeat bills brought before the floor of the House. In April this year Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim, acting on claims made by other MPs, directed Parliament’s Power and Privilege Committee to investigate claims that an MP solicited a bribe in order to drop a question. In the same month the Kenya Bankers Association was forced to deny allegations of attempts to bribe Members of the Parliament to vote against a bill intended to the cap bank lending interest rates.
Yet despite these serious allegations of legislative favours in return for cash, the public has seen little to no action from the state machinery (Parliament itself, the police, the Director of Public Prosecution to investigate these allegations) Why is this?
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