William Ruto aide Marianne Kitany named in Sh200m scam 1

Suspended Chief of Staff to Deputy President William Ruto, Marianne Kitany. FILE PHOTO | DIANA NGILA |  NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• Sh100m used to stop MPs from impeaching Cabinet secretary.
• DP's office had been extensively furnished by Odinga when he was Prime Minister but Ms Kitany redid it all over.

By PETER LEFTIE
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Suspended Chief of Staff to Deputy President William Ruto, Ms Marianne Kitany, is on the spot for
allegedly diverting Sh200 million to fund a campaign against one of President Kenyatta’s most trusted Cabinet Secretaries.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission report tabled in the National Assembly and the Senate on Tuesday says Ms Kitany used Sh100 million from the Legislative and Inter-Governmental Relations Office to mobilise MPs against “the abortive campaign last July to impeach powerful Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru”.

Ms Kitany is among some top officials in the Jubilee administration who have stepped aside to pave the way for investigations into corruption allegations against them.

The claims had emanated from a confidential document forwarded to the anti-corruption agency by the Presidency on July 31, 2014.

Anti-corruption commission spokesman Yasin Amaro confirmed receipt of the document that day and said investigations had started.

“If a document has been received by the commission, it must be investigated. If we have received it, definitely an investigation is going on,” Mr Amaro told the Nation at the time.

The authors of the document did not disclose their identities.

The motion of impeachment sponsored by the MP for Igembe South, Mr Mithika Linturi, was later dropped after it was taken up by President Kenyatta and the Majority Leader in the National Assembly, Mr Aden Duale.

'WANTON OPULENCE'

The memo had also accused Ms Kitany of irregularly spending another Sh100 million to renovate the Deputy President’s office.

“She has continuously purported to exercise powers and making decisions that are not related to the role of chief of staff. To this end, in flagrant breach and total disregard of laid-down government procedures, Ms Kitany converted Sh100 million allocated to the Legislative and Inter Governmental Relations Office to a confidential vote for mobilisation of MPs,” the memo reads.

The memo claimed that Ms Kitany made the decision to renovate the office unilaterally.

“In the previous administration, the office complex seating the Deputy President was extensively renovated and refurbished by the then Prime Minister,” the memo reads.

“Despite this, the Chief of Staff to the Deputy President has orchestrated extensive and lavish renovations to the same office buildings. The degree of wanton opulence that these renovations have resulted in is a far cry from the government’s austerity programme and unjustifiable in terms of need or priority.”

The memo adds: “There is the lingering suspicion that the sum was heavily inflated,” it says.

It is not the first time Ms Kitany has found herself on the spot over corruption allegations.

The disgraced Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chaired by Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba also accused Ms Kitany of being the chief architect in the scandal that saw the Deputy President’s office hire a private jet to fly him to various destinations in West and Central Africa at a cost of Sh100 million.

The Public Accounts Committee report also accused Ms Kitany of attempting to cover up the scandal by transferring most of the employees involved in what came to be known as the “hustler’s jet” matter.