• President William Ruto said there's no place for cartels killing the sugar industry and those involved will either go to jail, leave the country or go to heaven.
• Ichung'wah said he was not encouraging extra-judicial killings but rather backing the approach of doing something about corruption rather than merely speaking about it.
Image: SCREENGRAB
National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung'wah has defended President William Ruto's proposed three-pronged approach to deal with sugar cartels and other corrupt individuals in the country.
The President said there's no place for cartels killing the sugar industry and those involved will either go to jail, leave the country or ascend to heaven.
During a special sitting convened Thursday for the House to consider motions, bills and appointees, debate on the Privatisation Bill which seeks to have debt-struck sugar millers taken over by private entities to save them from total collapse came up.
Ichung'wah said the President's 'mambo ni matatu' strategy was the best way of fighting corruption in the country and is in fact, a deterrent measure advocated by the Bible.
"The book of Ezra 7:26 says that whoever does not obey the law of your God and the law of the King must surely be punished by death, banishment, confiscation of property or imprisonment. Mambo ni matatu," he said.
Ichungw'ah was responding to Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang who had risen on a point of order saying by backing the mambo matatu strategy, the Majority leader was advocating for extrajudicial killings.
"Can the Majority leader confirm that he is encouraging extra-judicial killings or people being sentenced without judicial trial or others deported to places without due procedure?" Kajwang posed.
Ichung'wah said he was not encouraging extra-judicial killings but rather backing the approach of doing something about corruption rather than merely speaking about it.
He said he was on record for speaking out boldly against extra-judicial killings after bodies started turning up in River Yala seemingly after executions.
Despite the explanation, Kilgoris MP Julius Sunkuli further challenged the Kikuyu MP to explain how the third option of people going to heaven could be actualised without the involvement of death.
"And also Madam Speaker, to explain to us how Ezra, written 5,000 years ago applies in a situation where democracy is now reigning," Sunkuli said.
Ichung'wah said the only way for all and sundry to avoid hell and win the ticket to Heaven the right way was to follow the Lord's way and accept that corruption is evil.
He claimed the sugar cartels presently troubling the country rode on state capture in the previous regime to milk the sugar industry dry.
"And I want to invite my friend the Hon TJ and the Hon Sunkuli and all our other colleagues to please, accept to get the ticket to heaven by not just speaking about corruption but acting against corruption."
Ichung'wah said he would in fact propose the addition of a fourth option of the establishment of a State Capture Commission to deal with the country to fully interact with what has bedevilled the country's fabric in the management of economic resources.
"Because it is sad that as political leaders we shout from the rooftops and shout loudly about the fight against corruption but when it comes to acting on issues of corruption, we are the first to use politics to defend the corrupt."
The Majority leader added that for the avoidance of doubt, the three options are not open to law-abiding and hardworking Kenyans but to the corrupt.
"Those who believe that they can use their offices as public officers to enrich themselves at the expense of the people who put them in those offices," he said.