• Former Labour CS Kazungu Kambi has narrowly survived a plot to eliminate his name from the nominees for the National Lands Commission.
• Kambi is now among 9 commissioners who will be taking over the Ardhi house based offices after the National Assembly approved their nominations.
Image: FILE
Former Labour CS Kazungu Kambi narrowly survived a plot to eliminate his name from the nominees for the National Lands Commission.
Kambi is now among nine commissioners who will be taking over the Ardhi house-based offices after the National Assembly approved their nominations.
With this approval, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s point man Gershom Otachi Omanwa will be taking over from Muhammad Swazuri as chairperson.
Otachi was among the battery of lawyers who represented Uhuru during his ICC case at The Hague.
Other nominees are former Nyeri Town MP Esther Murugi, former Egerton University vice chancellor James Tuitoek, former Isiolo Woman MP Tiyah Galgalo, Alister Mutugi, Reginald Okumu and Gertrude Nduku
With this development, Uhuru is expected to make the appointment.
The approval ends the long wait at NLC which has been without commissioners since the exit of the Swazuri-led team in February.
There had been calls for Swazuri to leave over integrity issues.
Cotu boss Francis Atwoli said Kazungu has been mentioned in various scandals and thus he cannot be trusted to be in charge of such a sensitive position.
Atwoli in a statement said the purported clearance by the Parliamentary Lands committee for his appointment is itself suspect and portrays ineptitude.
“Anybody who may have appointed him to NLC might have been either fought through the gun or blind folded,” he said.
In a heated debate in Parliament, MPs seemed to be divided on whether to reject Swazuri or adopt a report that had proposed the rejection of former Isiolo Woman Rep Tiya Galgalo.
While tabling the report for approval, chairperson of the departmental committee on Land, Rachael Nyamae had said the vetting committee proposed rejection of Galgalo.
She said the committee established that Galgalo had not complied with KRA procedures in filing her tax returns.
But in a heated debate, MPs objected her rejection, saying KRA was to blame.
Gilgil MP Martha Wangari said KRA was to take responsibility for issuing Galgalo a fake compliance certificate.
Her sentiments were echoed by Isiolo North MP Hassan, who said it was ironical that the chair nominee had the same issues with KRA compliance but was cleared.
“Mr Speaker this is just a way of putting hurdles for Galgalo because she is a woman. We need to move away from such notions and give the nominees a chance to move,” he said.
With temperatures rising on the floor, section of MPs said instead of removing Galgalo, it was former Labour CS kazungu Kambi who was to be eliminated from the list.
MP Owen Baya said academic qualification of Kazungu was questionable and thus he was not fit for the job.
“Mr Speaker we cannot ascertain whether the nominee acquired a university degree. Secondly his Integrity is highly questionable,” he said.
His sentiments were echoed by MP Ted Mwambire who accused Kazungu of forging title deeds to the Giriama Ranch.
"Mr Speaker we have looked at his CV and there are a lot of inconsistencies. For instance the same time he says he was the manager at Post Bank, it is indicated as the same time he was still in High School. So if he cannot understand his own career path, how can we bestow to him this responsibility,” Mwambire paused.
Speaker Justin Muturi had to intervene by calling for the divisions vote as both the majority and minority gained momentum.
As a result, Galgalo garnered a total of 114 votes against 70 who opposed his appointment.