Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto during an event in Kisumu on June 6, 2015. PHOTO | TOM OTIENO |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto has turned the heat on President Uhuru
Kenyatta for releasing a dossier to the National Assembly implicating
some governors in corruption.
While responding to a
petition seeking to compel governors named on the President’s list to
step aside, Mr Ruto said that governors are not appointees of the
president to be asked to step aside through an executive order.
“We
are not like Cabinet secretaries or principal secretaries who hold
office at the will and pleasure of the President. Those are the people
the President can dismiss at any time, whether by an executive order or
word of mouth, but not governors,” said Ruto.
He swore
that President Kenyatta exceeded his mandate by asking governors to step
aside, adding that the executive order was improper, illegal and
unconstitutional and should be declared null and void.
According
to the Bomet governor, the president’s decision to release the list was
a calculated move to fool the public as happened during the Anglo
Leasing scandal when ministers were forced to resign only to resume work
in high-ranking offices.
“His address to Parliament
requiring public officers to step aside was a cosmetic public relations
exercise by a beleaguered President overwhelmed by public pressure. He
has even failed to tell the Kenyan public the terms and conditions of
stepping aside,” swore Ruto.
Mr Ruto added that
although governors are supporting the war against corruption, they will
not step aside unless they are charged, found guilty and jailed for a
term exceeding one year.
PETITION MSIGUIDED
He
accused President Kenyatta of breaching the Constitution by purporting
to direct the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Director of
Public Prosecutions and the Judiciary on how to prosecute individuals.
“Stepping
aside on flimsy grounds of unauthenticated allegations is tantamount to
a rebuttal of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty as it
amounts to a presumption of guilty until proven innocent,” said Ruto.
He
further swore that the petition by activists Okiya Omtatah and Wycliffe
Nyakina was misguided since the President’s report might later prove to
be defamatory.
Mr Omtatah and Mr Nyakina are seeking
court orders to force governors and members of Parliament named on the
anti-graft commission’s List of Shame to vacate office until cleared.
The
activists argued that the Council of Governors is not an elite club for
purposes of protecting their members from the reach of the law and that
irrespective of whether appointed or elected, they took the oath to
defend the Constitution.
Justice Isaac Lenaola scheduled the hearing on October 14.
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