Three MPs have opposed governors’ demand for immunity against civil and criminal charges in the ongoing war on corruption.
The MPs said the governor’s request is ill informed and diversionary.
The MPs said the question of immunity is privilege singularly enjoyed by the President which he does not share with his deputy and challenged the county chiefs to let the war on corruption take its own course.
In three separate press briefings, the MPs reminded the Council of Governors (CoG) that criminal culpability has never been communal, and urged anti-corruption to reign in on the errand county chiefs suspected to have pilfered public resources without mercy.
The Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Opiyo Wandayi, Senate Minority Whip Mutula Kilonzo Jnr and Meru Senator Mithika Linturi separately dismissed the call, saying that immunity accorded to the President by the constitution is not meant to undermine the war on corruption.
“The governors’ request has no foundation in law. The President enjoys the immunity because he is the symbol of national unity. The governors are CEO of County executives and they don’t enjoy the status of the President. CEOs are accountable,” Mr Kilonzo Jnr said Tuesday.
The CoG on Monday claimed that the national government is hell bent on embarrassing the 47 governors by parading some of them who have been accused of corruption before the public.
Through its chairman, Josphat Nanok, the governors complained on the treatment Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong’ was treated unfairly by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission when he arrested on corruption related charges last week.
Mr Kilonzo Jnr said he expected the CoG to unequivocally support the President in his war on corruption in both levels of government as one of the ways of affirming that corruption has not been devolved.
However, Mr Wandayi said that the call was proof of how “crazy some people have become in Kenya” and regretted that the CoG is being propped up as a club to serve and protect selfish interests.
“Should such request find its way into Parliament let the governors know I will be in the forefront of opposing such immunity from being granted because the immunity the President enjoys is not meant to undermine the war on corruption,” Mr Wandayi said.
He added: “Corruption is corruption, whether at the national or county level because the loser is the public. The people at the grass root are the most vulnerable in the theft of public funds. They are not interested in these shenanigans because all they want is for the funds allocated to counties be put to proper use.”
Mr Wandayi asked the anti-graft agencies to spare no effort in going for the county chiefs they suspect have looted, while at the same time challenged the public to support the renewed war on corruption launched by the President.
Mr Linturi accused the governors of politicizing the war on corruption and reminded that criminal liability is individual. “I had expected the CoG to hire the best lawyers for Mr Ojaamong instead of defending him because this act is tantamount to politicizing the war on corruption,” he said.
He also faulted the governors, who in their push to have immunity installed for them, borrowed precedence from Nigeria, arguing the West African nation is not the best case scenario.
While he accepted there is immunity in Nigeria, he however noted that it has come with a serious repercussion, which has made it difficult to prosecute the governors even where compelling and credible evidence has been found.
“Corruption in Nigeria is an unimaginable levels and I would have been happy had they borrowed from Canada, South Africa or the US,” he said, noting that the most important thing is for the country to empower institutions to do what they are legally supposed to do.