Ruto aide under probe over plot against Waiguru

Posted by OLIVE BURROWS  4:10 PM (15 hours ago)

The impeachment motion against Waiguru was sponsored by Igembe South Member of Parliament Mithika Linturi

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 31 – Deputy President William Ruto’s suspended Chief of Staff Marianne Kittany is under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for supposedly plotting to eject Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru.
According to the EACC dossier President Uhuru Kenyatta presented to Parliament on Thursday, Kittany is suspected of misappropriating Sh200 million in that effort with Sh100 million coming from the Legislative and Inter-Governmental Relations office.
“To mobilize MPs in the abortive campaign in July 2014 to impeach powerful Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru,” the EACC Report on the Current Status of Corruption Matters under Investigation to the Presidency reads.
The impeachment motion against Waiguru was sponsored by Igembe South Member of Parliament Mithika Linturi on the grounds that:
“She appears to have misused her office and violated the law by abusing, intimidating and threatening public servants under jurisdiction: I am deeply concerned that such treatment especially in the case (Gor) Semelang’o and (Kiplimo) Rugut in contravention of the Constitution led to their removal from offices held.”
Semelango and Rugut held the offices of Youth Enterprise Development Fund Chair and National Youth Service Director General respectively.
READ: Jubilee’s Linturi files motion to impeach Waiguru
Kittany has previously been questioned by the Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly over what popularly came to be known as the ‘Hustler’s Jet’ leasing controversy.
She appeared before PAC to refute claims that a jet hired to transport Deputy President William Ruto and an entourage on a tour of Africa cost Sh100 million.
More, it was alleged at the time, than it would have cost him to use a commercial airliner.
READ: Ruto’s office releases Sh18m jet invoices
In the office of the Presidency, suspended Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Kimemia is under investigation by the EACC for irregularly awarding a tender worth a billion shillings and in cahoots with suspended Investment Secretary Esther Koimett and Ambassador to Tanzania Chirau Mwakwere, denying former employees of the Kenya Railways Corporation the opportunity to purchase houses through a tenant purchase scheme.
“It is alleged that in 2006, an inter-ministerial committee in 2006 approved that seven percent of (the corporation’s non-strategic assets in Nairobi of an estimated value of Sh5 billion be soled to employees that were in occupation,” the EACC report explains.
Kittany and Kimemia both stepped aside following President Kenyatta’s directive in Parliament on Thursday that all state officials adversely mentioned in the EACC report step aside for 60 days so as not to interfere with EACC investigations.