Chirchir faces ouster over UK bribery claim

Politics and policy

Davis Chirchir, Energy and Petroleum secretary. PHOTO | FILE 

By EDWIN MUTAI, emutai@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• MPs have filed a Motion in the National Assembly seeking to compel President Uhuru Kenyatta to relieve Mr Chirchir of his duties.
• This follows damaging information that has emerged from a UK court, alleging that he was bribed to award lucrative ballot paper printing contracts to British firm Smith & Ouzman while working at the IIEC.

MPs have set in motion a process that could see Energy and Petroleum secretary Davis Chirchir sacked over his alleged role in a corruption scandal involving officials of the defunct Interim Independence Electoral Commission (IIEC).

The MPs, mainly drawn from the opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord), have filed a Motion in the National Assembly seeking to compel President Uhuru Kenyatta to relieve Mr Chirchir of his duties.

The MPs want Mr Chirchir sacked from his Cabinet post following damaging information that has emerged from a UK court, alleging that he pocketed millions of shillings in bribes to award lucrative ballot paper printing contracts to British company Smith & Ouzman while working at the IIEC.

The Cord MPs, including Opiyo Wandai (Ugunja), Timothy Bosire (Kitutu Masaba), Timothy Wanyonyi (Westlands), Joyce Lay (Taita Taveta) and Isaac Mwaura (Nominated), said they had invoked provisions of Article 152(6)(b) of the Constitution and the National Assembly Standing Order No 66 to petition for Chirchir’s removal.

“The petition will take many forms and will emerge from different quarters and forums. But its aim shall be to protect our Constitution and restore the image of the country which has been battered and damaged by this scandal by forcing the President to act, having failed to do so on his own accord, despite having the powers to act,” Mr Wandai said in a statement issued at Parliament buildings in Nairobi on Thursday.

Top managers at the British security printing firm have been charged at the Southwark Crown Court number 11 in UK for allegedly paying millions of shillings in bribes to electoral commission officials in return for lucrative contracts.

Investigations done by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office allege that the officials inflated contract prices in order to pocket hefty kickbacks from the British firm totalling Sh50 million (349,057.39 pounds).

READ: UK court exposes corruption ring at Kenya poll agency

The prosecutors in the UK court say the costs of printing contracts were inflated by up to 38 per cent mainly to cater for the bribes to senior election officials.

The corrupt payments were built into S&O’s pricing of the printed materials so that the inflation in the price was passed on to the taxpayers.

The prosecutors allege that the senior election officials received their kickbacks disguised as “chickens” through Smith & Ouzman’s local agent, Trevy James Oyombra.

To file a motion for the removal of a Cabinet secretary, an MP has to secure the signatures of 88 members constituting one-quarter of the 349-member assembly.

“A member of the National Assembly, supported by at least one-quarter of all the members of the National Assembly, may propose a motion requiring the President to dismiss a Cabinet secretary where there are serious reasons for believing that the Cabinet secretary has committed a crime under national and international law,” the Constitution states.

The MPs accused President Kenyatta of failing to sack the minister whom they said is bound by the provisions of Chapter Six of the Constitution that deals with leadership and integrity and the Public Officer Ethics Act.

The MPs claim Mr Chirchir has flouted among others provisions of the Ethics Act that require a State officer not to bring dishonour to the office he or she holds.