I stand by my words on raid
BY BENSON AMOLLO
Kenya Times, Kenya
Oct 21 2006
LANG’ATA MP Raila Odinga yesterday maintained that Internal Security
minister John Michuki had indicated to his Kabete counterpart Paul
Muite that President Mwai Kibaki was fully aware of the raid on the
Standard Group.
Raila also poked holes at the President’s speech delivered at the
Nyayo National Stadium yesterday to commemorate Kenyatta Day, as an
elusive one missing on crucial issues that affect Kenyans.
The former Roads and Public Works minister dared both President
Kibaki and Michuki to challenge his assertions on the floor of the
House where he had earlier made the allegations on the raid.
"Whereas Kibaki might not come to Parliament because he has never,
let Michuki who has been responding to questions on this matter take
the floor of the House and challenge me on the same, if it is not
the truth. I said what he told Muite while giving evidence, it was
not my creation."
Raila termed President Mwai Kibaki the most incompetent legislator
in the history of the Ninth Parliament.
Responding to the President’s sentiments that the Lang’ata MP should
leave the First Family out of the controversial Artur brothers’ debate,
Raila said Kibaki should be ashamed to respond to him through the
press when "nobody bars him from coming to Parliament and challenging
me on the floor."
Raila said the people of Othaya constituency who Kibaki represents
should feel short-changed because their MP has never stepped in
Parliament for debates, yet his term of office was nearing an end,
adding: "I would expect Kibaki because the constitution has allowed
him, to come to Parliament and challenge me on any issue and respond
to other members’ concerns."
Said Raila: "The President as an MP is not a ceremonial
representative. Like any other legislator, he must strive to fulfil
what the electorate expect of him because when such people go to vote,
they know so well that they are voting a representative not a person
who confines himself to State House."
Addressing a press conference at a Nairobi hotel last evening,
the Orange Democratic Movement-Kenya (ODM-K) luminary said he had no
apologies to make to both the President and Internal Security Minister
John Michuki over his remarks in Parliament this week linking them
to the "Standard" raid and the two Armenian brothers.
He maintained that his statement was based on the evidence Michuki gave
to a joint probe by two Parliamentary committees on the activities
of the alleged Armenians co-chaired by Kabete MP Paul Muite. Michuki
had admitted to ordering the raid.
On Thursday, President Kibaki and Michuki issued statements dispelling
Raila’s remarks, with Kibaki calling on the Lang’ata MP to leave the
First Family out of the Armenians saga.
The President was apparently irked by Raila’s remarks the effect that
Michuki, while giving evidence in camera before the Parliamentary
probe, hailed the ‘Standard’ raid on grounds that the newspaper
intended to publish a story linking Kibaki’s family to the alleged
mercenaries expelled from the country after causing a security scare
at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
On the Kenyatta Day speech, Raila lashed at Kibaki for what he termed
as choosing to ignore the looming strike by the University Academic
Staff Union (UASU) yet it was threatening to affect the country in
entirety, but instead "reading a duplicated speech to Kenyans about
the achievements of his regime some of which are not practical."
Noting that university learning was a matter of grave importance to
a country, Raila accused the President together with Labour Minister
Newton Kulundu of giving the matter a cosmetic attention.
"The Government, judging by the lack of attention it has paid to the
issue in general, and by the way the Minister for Labour has handled
the matter to date, is evidently not seriously committed to finding
a lasting solution to this current problem."
The crisis he claimed was attributable to the Government’s stone-fist
control over universities which he said has culminated into appointment
of managers with little knowledge of the running of such institutions
"because they happen to be politically-correct."
"The time has now come for the Government to end its micro-management
of universities and to adopt a hands-off approach to policy. This
would enable universities to be run more efficiently by independent,
professional management teams appointed by autonomous boards."
Raila called on the Government to pay the dons Sh1.8 billion sent to
the universities prior to the expiry of the last Collective Bargaining
Agreement (CBA) in January, without hinging it on the current
negotiation process, which he said the Government has shot on the foot.
To avert the crisis, the ODM-K leader urged the Government to
reconstitute a proper Inter-Public Universities Consultative Forum
to negotiate a new CBA with all the parties before Monday. An interim
CBA, he said, should be signed without prejudice to the negotiations,
so that money can be disbursed to the dons and a full agreement signed
later ahead of the next year’s supplementary Budget in January.