Fifteen MPs are in court for assorted charges, an all-time high that serves to highlight the debate about the integrity of public office holders.
Lugari MP Ayub Savula, who was arrested on Friday on charges of fraudulently obtaining Sh122 million from the Government Advertising Agency (GAA), is the latest addition to growing list of MPs on the wrong side of the law.
The cases against the members of the 12th Parliament are active in courts countrywide and range from corruption allegations, breach of the Constitution and the Ethics and Integrity Act 2012, while others are facing charges of incitement to violence and subversion of the law.
The Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji at the weekend recommended that Savula, his two wives Melody Gatwiri Ringera and Hellen Kemboi, former Broadcasting and Telecommunication Principal Secretary Sammy Itemere and 30 others be charged over the GAA scandal.
Savula’s Friday evening arrest came only hours after Konoin MP Leonard Yegon was charged before Sotik principal magistrate Bernard Omwansa with assaulting Ngetich Kipsang, 29, at Kapset trading centre in Bomet county.
He pleaded not guilty and was released on a Sh15,000 bail.
In the same week, two MPs from Marsabit county were arrested and charged with fanning ethnic conflicts and funding cattle rustling raids.
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North Horr MP Chachu Ganya and his Saku counterpart Ali Rasso were arrested in connection with the Borana and Gabra inter-clan clashes which has so far claimed 14 lives and displaced dozens.
In September, Kibwezi West MP Patrick Musimba and his wife Angela Mwende were in the dock. The couple were arrested and charged with stealing Sh1.1 billion from Chase Bank.
The two were arraigned before Milimani senior principal magistrate Hellen Okwani.
They were to be charged alongside the bank’s former chairman Mohamed Khan, Dancun Kabui, James Mwenja, Makrios Agumbi, Luciane Sunter and Ronald Vlasman.
In August, Embakasi North MP James Gakuya was charged, jointly with 12 others, with fraudulent acquisition of Sh39,858,050 National Government Constituency Development Fund money in fictitious road construction contracts.
The same month, Sirisia MP John Waluke was arrested over corruption allegations.
The MP was arraigned before Milimani Anti-corruption Court charged with counts of fraud in relation to a contract his company Erad Supplies and General Contracts Ltd won to supply 40,000 tonnes of maize in 2004.
Waluke was accused of presenting a fake document. It is alleged on February 24, 2009, being the director of Erad, he knowingly and fraudulently prepared an invoice for $1,146,000 (Sh114 million) to be used as evidence in the arbitration dispute between his company and the National Cereals and Produce Board.
Waluke also denied three counts of fraudulent acquisition of public property in which it is alleged that between March 19 and July 2, 2013, in Nairobi county, being a director of Erad Supplies and General Contracts Ltd jointly with his co-director Grace Wakhungu, he acquired public property valued at Sh313 million.
Nakuru Town West MP Samuel Arama and lawyer Kennedy Begi Onkoba in June, this year, were accused that on diverse dates in August 2015, they conspired to defraud Ahmed Muhammed Nisar of a plot number 6/95 in Nakuru municipality. The two are facing a total of six counts.
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In May, Bobasi MP Innocent Momanyi was charged for allegedly causing malicious damage in a quarry in Kisii. He is also accused of malicious damage to property, assault and actual bodily harm.
In February, Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter, and two businessmen were charged with multiple counts related to forgery of Sh633 million Treasury Bills.
The 11 counts ranged from conspiracy to defraud Central Bank of Kenya, forgery, uttering and making false documents with intent to defraud.
Keter, Madat Saburali and Arthur Sakwa denied the charges when they appeared before Chief Magistrate Francis Andayi.
Andayi gave each of the three an alternative of depositing a bond of Sh5 million.
In February, Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang who was released on a Sh 50,000 cash bail after spending the night in police custody was charged with being present and consenting to the administration of an oath to NASA leader Raila Odinga with an intent to commit treason. In the second count, the prosecution claimed Kajwang’ took part in an unlawful assembly and organised a public meeting at Uhuru Park without notifying the police.
First term and vocal Embakasi East MP Babu Owino and his bodyguard Fanuel Owino are in court for allegedly attacking David Gichagu at Fortis Towers in Westlands, Nairobi, on January 11.
The two are said to have committed the crime with accomplices who were not in court.
Babu, was separately charged with two other counts of using abusive language and creating a disturbance.The two
were released on personal bonds of Sh20,000 each. Mwingi Central MP Gideon Mulyungi and his Makadara counterpart Gorge Aladwa are also in court.
Mulyungi, a former Principal Secretary was in October last year charged with hate speech directed at President Uhuru Kenyatta. He was released on a Sh200,000 bail.
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Aladwa on the other hand is accused of incitement to violence in the run up to last year’s general election .
The MP -
who is also the ODM chairman Nairobi - was charged with incitement to violence arising from remarks he made at a rally in Kibera on October 8, last year, and is out on a Sh500,000 bond.
The prosecution says he uttered words in Swahili which were loosely translated to mean that: “It was desirable to bring death to certain people if Cord principal Raila Odinga loses the 2017 presidential election,”
Kisumu senator Fred Outa, former Deputy Governor Ruth Odinga, Kondele MCA Joachim Oketch are facing charges of incitement and disruption of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission training during the repeat 2017 presidential elections.
Good governance crusaders now want the
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to implement the law and deal decisively with public and State officers found in breach of the Act.
Ndung’u Wainaina the Executive Director of International Centre Policy and Conflict said politicians who have been charged are eroding public confidence and bring the reputation of Parliament into disrepute, and should be barred from contesting future polls until they are cleared of any wrong doing.
“There is urgent need to prevent people with a criminal background from entering or retaining state political offices. The Constitution abhors discrimination in application of law. Political popularity and holding political office does not oust Constitutional ethics and integrity threshold requirements of any holder of State or public office,” Ndung’u said.
He said Article 3 of the Constitution compels every person to obey and abide by the Constitution and national values.
“We note that public power is exercised in trust for the public and individuals dignify the public office and promote public confidence in the office , that the holder of State/public office must pay regard to the competence, integrity and suitability of holding such office,” he said.
Matungulu MP Stephen Mule said increased corruption cases
among MPs is not brought about by pressure from constituents to meet their demands but it is just sheer greed.
Suba Churchill, the
Presiding Convener, Civil Society Reference Group said that the continued arrest and charging of elected and appointed leaders on criminal grounds is a conformation that the objects and purpose of Chapter Six of the Constitution and the Leadership and Integrity Act cannot be achieved in their current form.