Former Murang'a Senator Kembi Gitura says the Kemsa board acted above board in the award of tenders for the supply of PPE response kits.
Gitura, now Communication Authority of Kenya board chairman, said the board did not at any one time fail in its duties.
A report by the Public Investments Committee recommended that he and the board be prosecuted for interfering with Kemsa tenders.
The ex-Kemsa chairman said the recommendation “was a miscomprehension on the part of the committee on the role of the board”.
“The board cannot at any time appear to usurp the role of the management,” he said in a statement in response to a story published by the Star.
The former senator maintained that a board cannot be involved in the day-to-day running of a state corporation as that may pass as handling roles of the management.
“By a board sitting every day in the head office in which case, there would be no checks and balances,” Gitura said, calling for consistency in the recommendations by PIC.
The Mvita MP Abdulswamad Nassir-led committee recommended that the ex-Senator should be investigated by the EACC over the award of a commitment letter to Wallabis Ventures Limited – one of the firms mentioned in the Kemsa case.
Gitura said the committee relied on an affidavit sworn by the Wallabis Ventures Ltd director Catherine Ndung’u.
The ex-senator argued that the director stated she didn’t know and has never met him, nor did he assist the company to secure supplies tender with Kemsa.
“It does not appear from reading the report that she was summoned by the committee to be cross-examined on her affidavit,” Gitura said.
He argued that if the committee doubted his statement on oath, the least he expected would have been for the committee to summon him for cross-examination.
“Although the committee made observations and even made an attempt at analysing the evidence adduced before it by the several suppliers, it did not do so on the evidence by Catherine Ndungu,” he said.
Gitura added that he was not equally summoned to be cross-examined on his affidavit in which he denied influencing the award of the tender to the said company.
“This surprised me. There is no statement as to whether or not the committee considered the truthfulness or otherwise of my affidavit or that of Dr Ndungu.
“Was this an oversight? I do not think so; I have the very strong feeling it was preconceived but I of course expect the chairman of the committee will explain it when he moves the motion on the report for debate,” he said.
The committee recommended that the EACC investigate his alleged interference in the award of the tender.
He reasoned that this was not the case for another tenderer, adding that there was a possibility the committee had concluded his case.
“I would, therefore, conclude that in my case, the committee had already decided because this cannot have been an oversight on their part,” Gitura said.
“Whatever the case and if the committee was acting in good faith, it should have stopped at recommending that investigations be done to establish the truth but not to pre-empt what the investigations would find leading to prosecution.
“I have stated on oath and I would like to repeat the same here that I do not know Wallabis Ventures Limited or for that matter, any of its directors and I did not influence the award of the tender to the company as in any event I would have had no reason to do so.”
He said he was ready to be investigated on the allegations and be subjected to a lifestyle audit.
“I have been a crusader against corruption in whatever form all my adult life and particularly when I served as a member of Parliament and even now that I am out of it, and I have not changed my position,” he said.
“I do not wish to see my name besmirched whether for political or other reasons by a parliamentary committee report that did not take time to consider the evidence before it.”
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
