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"id": 191268,
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
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"content": "I apologise, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. When I talked about goats and sheep, I was talking about the poor Kenyans who have no voice to resist when they are confronted with such challenges.I wish to apologise. The Minister for Finance has decided to treat public property as if it was personal or partisan property, which this Motion wishes to advance that he has gone ahead and attempted and actually initiated the process of converting it into partisan and personal gain. I wish to point out that this is evidenced in three areas; the manner in which he handled the Initial Public Offer of Safaricom, the privatisation of Telkom (Kenya), the supply of new generation currency by De La Rue, and finally, the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel. Those are only but a few. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, because of lack of a better definition, I wonder whether the Minister has become a wheeler-dealer at the Treasury. He is today the prince of impunity. He is acting in total disregard of advice by senior officers and the technocrats at the Central Bank of Kenya. He acted in total disregard of the advice given to him by parliamentary committees. On two occasions, he was advised by the Public Investments Committee on the Safaricom IPO. He ignored and went ahead. He was given advice by the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade that he should hold the sale of Grand Regency Hotel, but he ignored and like prince of impunity, he went ahead and sold it. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Finance has no respect whatsoever for fellow Cabinet Ministers. He has even taken it upon himself to insult hon. Members to the extent that when we speak, we do so from points of ignorance. This Minister because of his culture of impunity, in the last Parliament, he even defied this House, when we enacted a law and asked him to implement it. The Chair had, actually, to force him to implement the law by threatening to bar any business relating to his Ministry from appearing on the Order Paper. That is when he curved in. This Motion finds that the Minister had his ten fingerprints on corruption all over the country. He has fingerprints on the Safaricom IPO and the privatisation of Telkom Kenya where he deliberately under-valued Telkom and Safaricom. In the prospectus for Safaricom, the Minister failed to indicate to the investors that, where they were buying shares actually there was a liability of Kshs68 billion. In the process, he ended up, if you permit me to use this word, my English is rather limited--- I am more fluent in Kiluhya. He ended up conning Wanjiku, Ayuma, Achieng, Mwende and Kanini. Name them! In the privatisation of Telkom Kenya and the Safaricom IPO, unknown to the public, he has only achieved one thing; he succeeded in paying off debts incurred by people who mismanaged a State Corporation in the name of Kenya Post and Telecommunications Corporation, the mother of these two, using public money. This money belongs to the poor Kenyans who bought the Safaricom shares. He paid off those debts and these men and women of power and wealth who plundered this State Corporation are today still walking free. He had the option to recover this money from these people, instead of using money from the members of public. The Minister for Finance has single-handedly removed parliamentary oversight role over Safaricom and Telkom Kenya. He did this in a very ingenious manner by selling the majority of the share holding in Telkom (Kenya) and by reducing the Government stake in Safaricom to a mere 35 per cent so that by removing this oversight role, that elite club of eaters could continue until ad infinitum. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister for Finance has allowed questionable companies in the name of Alcazar Capital Limited and Mobitelea to own substantial shares in Telkom and July 2, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1587 Safaricom. In so doing, unknown to the public, he has exposed the Kenyan nation to serious national security risk because once you allow the shareholding of telecommunications business to be largely in the hands of the private sector and foreigners, it means that the security role that is discharged by the telecommunications sector is no longer under the control of the Government. The spirit of impunity has ignored the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, gone ahead and sold the Grand Regency Hotel. Before we discovered, thanks to Mr. Orengo, that he had done that, the hon. Minister came to this House and misled Parliament about the value and sale price of this particular hotel. Members of the Grand Opposition were very kind that afternoon, otherwise they should have risen on Standing Order No.88(2) and demanded that the Minister be named that day and be thrown out of the House. The Minister, in that sale, has entered into a questionable deal with a Libyan company, whose identity is still a mystery. To that company, he has sold our hotel for a song, Kshs1.85 billion only. The reason why the Minister does not feel it, is that to him Kshs1.85 billion is just loose change. It is nothing! Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Mr. Kimunya, who enjoys the benefit of university education, and not in a mundane discipline but deliberately trained in matters of commerce, economics, finance and accounts, has done all these. He has even shielded this sale from the Attorney-General and the Minister for Lands. If he had nothing to hide, having been a student of the University of Nairobi, where the law of finance is taught, he should have remembered that the Attorney-General was the custodian on behalf of the public. The prince of impunity has unprocedurally gone ahead and cleared Mr. Kamlesh Pattni of all charges against him by the Republic. Has he become the Attorney-General of the Republic of Kenya? Mr. Kimunya has got a wonderful cash cow that has been on-going and is still on-going in the name of De La Rue. Mr. Kimunya knows that De La Rue won a tender for US$51 million to print new generation currency for this country. The new generation currency was going to be tamper-proof and cheaper. He went and made sure that advice given to him by technocrats at the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), that he should not allow any arrangement other than tender, fell on deaf ears. Since he was protecting his cash cow, the people who attempted to stop him have faced the same fate. One of them is the former CBK Governor, Mr. Mulei. The Minister came and told the Republic of Kenya that Mr. Mulei was not good enough and that he had to be removed from office, because he had given a tender to his son. That was not the real reason. When Mr. Mulei went to the High Court, he was acquitted of all charges, but by the time he was coming back, the Minister had already given the job to his best friend, Prof. Njuguna Ndung'u. They play golf together. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, a patriotic Kenyan, who was working at the CBK as the Company Secretary, Mr. John Gikonyo, penned a letter to the Minister and warned him that the thing that he was taking the Government into, was lopsided. \"Do not do it.\" Mr. Gikonyo is at home. Mr. Mariwa, the one who was working as the Director of Currency, maybe the Minister can remember that the poor old man is also at home. For years, this Minister has been printing old generation currency at three times more than the new generation currency was going to cost us. When he stopped the contract and asked them to continue producing the more expensive ones, he did not do it before he paid 50 per cent deposit of the US$51 million of the original tender. That 50 per cent translates to Kshs1.8 billion. He paid that as deposit for production of new generation currency, but when he stopped it, that money was never returned to the Treasury. Probably, that money has been kept in an escrow account and we wonder who partakes of the profits. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the same fiasco, the Minister committed the Government to a joint venture with De La Rue when it is the Government stated policy that it wants to reduce shareholding in private operations. Also, this is contrary to international practice. One is left 1588 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 2, 2008 wondering: What do some people know in this country. Is it not time we found out what Mr. Orengo knows? Is it not just about time we found out what the Prime Minister knows about this deal? The Prime Minister, in the Constitution of Kenya, is allowed to co-ordinate and supervise the Minister for Finance. Are we convinced that when these things were being done, the principal co- ordinator and supervisor was completely in the dark? If he was in the dark, then he should come and tell the House today, that the Minister kept him in the dark. I personally treat with a lot of contempt the so-called select committee that is on-going today. Any attempts to subject this House to a committee that is strange to this House is an abuse to the Constitution of Kenya that provides for separation of powers. Under Standing Order No.154, we can only be answerable to a select committee that has been constituted by this House and not by the Executive. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister committed the Government to joint venturing. At this point, I am wondering whether you should give priority to Mr. Wetang'ula to contribute to this Motion. We understand that Mr. Wetang'ula has a company called \"Wetangula, Anan and Makokha Advocates\" which represents Kamlesh Pattni, the Libyans and the CBK. After consulting, I have been assured by Mr. Wetang'ula that upon being appointed a member of the Executive, he quit his firm. Maybe you will give him an opportunity to clear his name. It is just about time Mr. Ringera told Kenyans what he really meant when he said, and I quote:- \"This is the sixth largest asset recovery in the history of the whole world\". If it was the sixth largest recovery in the history of the world, for God's sake, Kshs1.5 billion does not, in any way, feature in the words \"largest in the world\". Brother Ringera, given an opportunity to address those of us who are prepared to listen, will actually be able to reveal what \"large\", indeed, means. It is not Kshs1.5 billion. It is exactly the real amount that he discovered that these people pocketed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), Prof. Ndung'u is a top-notch professional. He is an academician. He was teaching at our university before he was looped in. If the good professor was looped in so as to perpetuate corruption in this country, this is the time for him to also step aside as Mr. Kimunya is being kicked out, so that we can have free access to the records of the CBK. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, because hon. Members, some of them better prepared and informed than me - I am just a bull fighter -are prepared to tackle this issue, I want to finally say as follows: To stop corruption at the Treasury in this country, Mr. Kimunya must go! To end impunity in this country, Mr. Kimunya must go! To repossess the Grand Regency Hotel, Mr. Kimunya must go! To redress Kenyans who were conned into buying shares in the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of Safaricom, Mr. Kimunya must go! To assure Kenyans that their taxes are reserved for development, Mr. Kimunya must go! Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move and ask Mr. Namwamba to second the Motion. As I sit down, I beg that when we make a decision on this Motion, it should be by nothing else, but division, so that wananchi should know how we are voting."
}