ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi will sue Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Achesa for linking him to the loss of Sh380 million from the cash-strapped Mumias Sugar Company.
Achesa on Friday asked the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate Mudavadi over the loss.
The CS also accused Mudavadi of opposition to the formation of a task force to look into the sugar industry crisis. The formation of the task force was ordered by President Uhuru Kenyatta in October. The team is co-chaired by Agriculture CS Mwangi Kiunjuri and Kakamega governor Wycliffe Oparanya.
Mudavadi’s private secretary Kibisu Kabatesi on Monday said the former deputy Prime Minister has instructed his lawyers to file a case of defamation against Achesa.
Kabatesi said that the CS maliciously defamed Mudavadi without prompting facts. He said that Achesa has an “insatiable craving which must be fed by mudslinging of his seniors.”
Kabatesi said Achesa has forsaken his duties as a Sports CS and was busy moving from one funeral meeting to another insulting senior Western politicians on behalf of Deputy President William Ruto.
The CS is a close ally of Ruto and is one of his point-men in the region .
“We know that the DP is the one paying the pipers in Western who are competing for his hand-outs. It is the caller of the piper who pays for the tune,” Kabatesi said.
He challenged Ruto to disown Achesa’s “primitive operation” or “he will be politically enjoined in the suit.”
Kabatesi said it was the height of deceit for the CS to embark on a smear campaign against Mudavadi.
Kabatesi said the Achesa has contravened the oath of office and asked that he be relieved of his duties to save he country from embarrassment. He accused the CS of failure to steer the ministry as is expected.
“There is the stadia imbroglio yet not once has the CS ever mentioned what he is doing in his docket to deliver that promise,” Kabatesi said.
Achesa attack on Mudavadi seems to have been prompted by the Nasa leader’s call for a probe on huge donations DP Ruto makes in churches.
Speaking at a chruch service at Ruaka PCEA in Kiambu in November, Mudavadi asked KRA to probe the source of the money and if the people involved are meeting their tax obligations.
“We have people in the country who are donating more funds than Safaricom is giving through its foundation. If he doesn’t have a big company like Safaricom, it is clear that the source of his money is questionable,” Mudavadi said in an apparent attack on Ruto.