A fresh controversy has erupted within the committee investigating controversial sugar imports, with some MPs claiming that the report was doctored at the last minute to exonerate some culprits.
And yesterday, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi abruptly deferred debate on the report into the contaminated sugar.
Muturi stopped debate on the new report because it was presented to the House unprocedurally. Without elaborating,
Muturi said other members of the two committees had suggested amendments, which he had approved for inclusion.
A section of MPs sitting in theNational Assembly joint committee on Agriculture and Trade yesterday disowned part of the report tabled on Wednesday.
Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati and Makueni's Dan Maanzo, among others, claimed the report which indicted Cabinet secretaries Henry Rotich (Treasury), Adan Mohammed (EAC and former Trade) and former Agriculture CS Willy Bett was edited between the Panari Hotel and Parliament Buildings.
The team chaired by Kanini Kega (Kieni) and Adan Haji (Mandera East) retreated to the hotel early this week to write the final report after a similar attempt failed in Mombasa two weeks ago.
The aggrieved MPs claim the doctoring was a conspiracy between the two chairs and clerks who were '"overprotective" of the ministers.
"I was as shocked as the members are. They should ask the lawyers who drafted the report. I signed it the way it was approved by members and tabled it in the House," Kega told the Star last evening.
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Haji did not respond to calls or text messages last evening.
Arati claimed the report was altered against the wishes of the members. "There is the Hansard report to support our case,” Arati said.
“This is forgery and we will not let it go,” Maanzo added
On July 5, MPs threw out a preliminary report of the committee that has been investigating the importation of sugar alleged to contain poisonous substances, terming the report
“shallow and inconclusive”.
The joint committee was tasked by the House to investigate claims of importation of contraband sugar and tax evasion.
It was also to confirm if the sugar in the market contains mercury, copper and lead as alleged by some government officials.
Both sides of the House were united in their outrage and frustration with the committee’s report, which they condemned as a waste of public resources.
Speaker Muturi said the objective of the investigations was lost when members started “hugging and kissing,” those whom they had called to interrogate.
He accused the MPs of "hugging and exchanging pleasantries during parliamentary work".
"Parliamentary work is not done through hugs and kisses…no, that is not the way work is done,” Muturi blasted the committee then, before proceeding to issue new directives to MPs on their conduct.
MISSING RECOMMENDATIONS
Arati said their original report recommended that Rotich, Adan and Bett be held responsible for the excess importation, failure to guarantee safety and quality of sugar and waiver of duty, respectively. He claimed that this information was completely missing from the report presented in the House.
"The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury should be held responsible for the excess importation of sugar into the country and consequent tax evasion," read a copy of what Arati’s team claimed was the original version of the report.
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But in the final copy, the ‘doctored’ report substituted 'held responsible' with the phrase ‘establish circumstances’.
Maanzo claimed the wording of the new report technically lets the three CSs off the hook and the focus can easily be turned to junior officers in their ministries.
Speaker Justin Muturi ordered debate on sugar report removed from the the day's order paper after the aggrieved members protested the alleged doctoring.
He pushed the debate on the 62-page report to next week to allow for amendments.
According to the report presented on Wednesday by Kega, the DCI was to launch investigations on Rotich, Adan and Bett for the part they played during the duty-free window when companies imported contaminated sugar.
Mohammed — who was then minister of Industralisation and Trade — failed to ensure safety and quality of sugar in the country, according to the report.
Rotich was singled out as the one who allowed excess importation of sugar through a record four gazette notices within five months authorising importation of duty-free sugar.
The committee established that Bett — now Kenya's ambassador to India — suspiciously waived duty for 14 companies, denying the country billions in taxation.
The entire lifespan of the joint committee has been marked with accusations and counter-accusations as some members claimed a number of their colleagues were holding brief for some sugar barons and government officials.
At the center of the disagreement was whether to include mercury findings in the final report, a move some members claim would have been injurious to the country’s economy as it would see Sh6.6 billion worth of sugar go to waste.
Another faction was unmoved by the economic implications and wanted the whole 1.3 tonnes of seized sugar outlawed to protect the lives of Kenyans.
On Tuesday at Panari, members walked out on Kega and Haji after it became apparent that the two co-chairs were dragging their feet in incorporating the Government Chemist’s findings,indicating some contraband sugar had mercury.