The gods of vengeance, it would seem, are not about to leave a powerful Parliamentary committee chair be any time soon.
This is after it emerged that a top government official, who also served under the Kibaki administration as a permanent secretary, has given the MP an ultimatum to return the “loot” he allegedly gave him concerning a financial probity case the committee was investigating. The official is understood to have given the MP about Sh5 million to doctor contents of a report touching on expenditure in the Office of the President, covering a period when he was the Permanent Secretary.
The ultimatum follows the failure by the MP to keep his side of the bargain after the committee linked the official to embezzlement of funds estimated to be about Sh3 billion.
“The accounting officer abused his office and usurped the responsibility for the confidential security expenditure which properly lies with the NIS, CID, GSU and the police, not the PS,” is the section in the report that has infuriated the said official.
The Nairobi Law Monthly has, however, established that the terse findings were aimed at the legislator rather than the official, after the rest of the committee members discovered that the chair had also collected their “share” but failed to deliver.
The official is said to be “very angry” with the lawmaker although it remains to be seen what action he will take against him given the fact that he cannot officially lodge a complaint against him because of the nature of the transaction.
The matter is causing the legislator sleepless nights and the official is now said to be among those working behind the curtains to have him kicked him out of the powerful committee.
The legislator was poised to be shown the door last month although it is understood that his party has been making frantic efforts to save him because of the sway his position holds.
It is understood that efforts to save the MP’s skin are not so much because the party would like to protect one of their own, but because his dismissal from the committee on graft charges would dent the party’s image.
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