Cord piles pressure on Waiguru in NYS saga

A combined picture of Cord leader Raila Odinga (right) and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru. FILE PHOTOS | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• And they dared the CS to make good her threat and sue Cord leader Raila Odinga for allegedly linking her to the scandal where more than Sh700 million is believed to have been lost, saying “We will defend Mr Odinga to the hilt.” 
• The women leaders were joined by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Embakasi South MP Irshad Sumrah, Langata MP Joshua Olum, Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo and Kitutu Masaba MP Tim Bosire in calling for Ms Waiguru to pave way for investigations.

By BRIAN MOSETI
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By VINCENT ACHUKA
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Cord women leaders have asked Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru to step aside to facilitate investigations into the National Youth Service scandal.

The leaders, who included Nominated senators Elizabeth Ongoro and Janet Ong’era and MPs, said they will not support the embattled CS blindly “because she is a woman”.

And they dared the CS to make good her threat and sue Cord leader Raila Odinga for allegedly linking her to the scandal where more than Sh700 million is believed to have been lost, saying “We will defend Mr Odinga to the hilt.” 

“Let the men stand aside and let women deal with this matter as women. There is one lady in this country who thinks she is better than other women, which is not the case,” Mrs Ongoro said in Bobasi constituency on Friday during the burial of Mr Andrew Arati, the father of Dagoreti MP Simba Arati.  

“Corruption is corruption, it does not matter if it was committed by a woman or man,” she added.

She said Ms Waiguru should also step aside like the other Cabinet Secretaries who had taken a similar move just on suspicion of having been involved in graft.

Ms Ong’era said that the money that was allegedly embezzled in the scandal should be recovered and used to pay striking teachers as they were suffering.

“We know that Sh791m was stolen from NYS. This money should be recovered and used to pay teachers as our children are suffering without going to school,” she said.

The women leaders were joined by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Embakasi South MP Irshad Sumrah, Langata MP Joshua Olum, Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo and Kitutu Masaba MP Tim Bosire in calling for Ms Waiguru to pave way for investigations.

Mr Odinga said he was not perturbed by Ms Waiguru’s threats to sue him saying it could actually give the CS a chance to explain herself in detail to the public regarding the scandal.

Mr Bosire said that if the NYS project was supposed to benefit all Kenyans, then it should have been distributed to all constituencies so that the whole country should benefit.

“We want all resources utilised equally. If the Devolution CS wanted the project to benefit all Kenyans, then it should have been done in all constituencies, but it is selective so that Jubilee can benefit over the opposition,” he said.

“This is a ploy for Jubilee to look for votes by using such projects in constituencies,” he said.

Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo asked if there was a law protecting certain individuals in the government while others were left to suffer.

He dared Ms Waigiru to make real her threat of suing the former PM over his allegations that NYS funds had been embezzled.

“Waiguru, take Raila to court and we will probe your lifestyle to determine if you are a thief,” he said.

Embakasi South MP Irshad Sumrah said Mr Odinga does not need to apologise for his remarks as they were justified.

“Why did (Charity) Ngilu and the rest leave when the public demanded so but Ms Waiguru is being protected by government?” he asked.

Lang’ata MP Joshua Olum said that the NYS project was a good idea, but it should be able to benefit all youth and actually help them develop.

“How can our youth benefit if all they are doing is digging roads and toilets? The government should introduce training so that the youth can gain life skills,” he said.

Meanwhile, the spate of events at the NYS is creating concern on whether the youth empowerment programme is shaping into yet another white elephant like other similar collapsed projects by previous government regimes.

This is as the government admits that the project, which currently has provided employment to youth across the country, is not sustainable.

“We have currently employed 75,000 youths across the country. This is a huge number and it was never meant to be permanent because it would cost you (taxpayers) a lot of money,” Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti told the Sunday Nation.

Since its inception in September last year, NYS which was launched with a lot of flair, has been dogged by controversies ranging from weaknesses in internal control procedures, improper payment procedures, flouting of procedure, disregard of policies in transactions and huge unnecessary expenditures.

The Kazi Kwa Vijana (KKV), Food for Work and the Economic Stimulus projects in the Grand Coalition Government which were meant for mass economic empowerment sank under almost similar circumstances after gobbling up billions of taxpayers funds.

KKV in particular was intended to create employment for 300,000 youths just like NYS but it folded up a few months after its inception in 2009 when the World Bank asked for a refund of the money it had given for the project due to misappropriation by officials in the then Prime Minister’s office.