Nairobi Star Tuesday, 27 January 2009
news 5
YOUR
VIEW
Was it right for the
government to re-
appoint Kimunya?
KHALWALE GETS DEATH W
THREATS OVER MAIZE
BY FRANCIS OPENDA
Public Accounts Committee
chairman Bonny Khalwale has
received two death threats for
probing the maize scandal.
He received two threatening
calls and an SMS informing
him telling him to go slow on
the maize saga.
He said an anonymous man
called twice and accused him
of tarnishing the name of his
sister who is a widow.
“The caller told me I should
have respect for the widow
whose husband he said was my
colleague in medical school and
warned me of dire consequenc-
es if I continued to tarnish their
family name,” he said.
The text message from yet
another anonymous person ac-
cused him of using his position
as the PAC chairman to seek
“cheap publicity”.
“Don’t use you chairman-
ship of PSC to advance and
give propaganda to backstreet
tabloids,” said part of the
SMS.
Khalwale said he had not re-
ported the matter to the police
but said together with other
PAC members they would not
be cowed from discharging
their duties.
“I am not a coward and will
not be intimidated and see no
need in taking up the matter
with the police,” he said.
But we later established that
as an afterthought the MP
recorded a statement at the
Parliament Police Station last
evening.
In the morning, Treasury
Permanent Secretary Joseph
Kinyua snubbed summons to
appear before the Committee
to help probe the operations of
the National Cereals and Pro-
duce Board.
Kinyua, as one of the trust-
ees of the National Strategic
Tlb launches number to tame rogue drivers
BY IRENE WAIRIMU
The Transport Licens-
ing Board has launched a
special telephone number
2333 through which vehicles
breaking traffic rules can be
reported.
Board chairman Wilfred ole
Legei said the TLB planned
to reinforce rules in light of
the increasing number of fatal
road accidents.
Legei warned transport
firms that they must obey the
Duke Ngare,
24, Marketer,
Nairobi:
They should not.
Kimunya is not
clean. They should
frustrate him to
quit from the
cabinet.
WARNED: Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale says he received threatening phone calls.
Food reserve, was expected to
inform the committee what his
office had taken on the audit
queries raised by the Controller
and Auditor General and PAC
on the operations at NCPB
since 2003.
The committee chaired by
Khalwale sat from 9am to 1pm
waiting in vain for Kinyua.
Khalwale said apart from
Kinyua, they had also sum-
moned Agriculture PS Roman
Kiome, Special Programmes
PS Ali Mohamed and sacked
NCPB Managing Director Prof
Gideon Misoi who are sched-
uled to appear today.
“The focus of the investiga-
tion is the current food situa-
tion in the country with specific
reference to maize,” he said.
Addressing a press confer-
law or risk the cancellation of
licenses and having their names
published in national dailies in
a list of shame.
“We are soon going to pub-
lish offenders of traffic rules in
the dailies and summon their
companies,” Legei said.
He was addressing public
transport stakeholders at St.
Mary’s Pastoral Centre in
Nakuru.
Legei called on Kenyans to
rise up and protect themselves
against road accidents by
Joseph Nabuto-
la, 53, Salesman,
Harleys Kenya:
They are wrong to
impeach him be-
cause he is a presi-
dential appointee.
They should give
him time to work.
ence, infuriated committee
members who included Gov-
ernment Chief Whip George
Thuo and MPs, Boaz Keino
(Marakwet West), Elias Mbau
(Maragwa) and Alex Mwiru
(Tharaka) said the government
seems not to be taking the
work of parliamentary com-
mittees seriously.
“The PS has simply decided to
ignore or go slow on the inquiry
that touches on a serious matter
of hunger,” said Khalwale.
The committee welcomed
the dissolution of the NCPB
board and the sacking of top
managers but said it should not
be used as a cover up to con-
ceal the scandal.
He said they had received
information that there were
efforts to destroy documents
reporting drivers who broke
the law.
Legei said heavy commercial
vehicles, tour firms, school
buses and parastatal vehicles
will not be spared and must
install speed governors and
safety belts.
He called upon the trans-
port companies to take
charge of their vehicles on
the road by ensuring drivers
obeyed the rules particularly
regarding speeding and over-
loading.
Peter Kam-
wende,30, Advo-
cate, Nairobi: They
are not and should
make sure that a
vote of no confi-
dence against the
minister is passed.
He could be corrupt.
PHOTO/file
linked to the maize scandal but
said the whistle blowers had
provided copies of the same
to the National Security Intel-
ligence Service.
“We have received the nec-
essary points and assembled a
credible case from our whistle
blowers,” he said.
Mbau explained that one
of the trustees of the National
Strategic Food reserve held at
NCPB the PS Treasury, and his
agriculture and special pro-
grammes counterparts should
be in a position to explain how
the stocks were depleted.
He said despite various
memoranda from PSC dating
back to 2003 on the NCPB au-
dit queries the PS Treasury has
never shown any action taken
to address the matter.
Legei told buses and matatus
in major towns to remove
tinted windows saying they
were being used to shield im-
moral videos.
At the same time, Legei di-
rected traffic base commanders
in the country to arrest drivers
and conductors not wearing
uniforms and check drunken
driving.
He said that all passenger
vehicles must be accompanied
by a uniformed conductor and
driver.
POLITICal
gossip
e are told that At-
torney General Amos
Wako is not in a hurry
to table the amend-
ments to the contro-
versial ICT Act, which allows kanga
squad-type
raids on me-
dia houses.
He was over-
heard saying
that he has
more serious
things to
bring to the
House than
the amend-
ments to the
Act.
HHH
The CEO of a parastatal under
the Ministry of Agriculture has
“disappeared” with Sh600 mil-
lion belonging to farmers. It is
not clear when the money went
missing but those in the know
tell us that the CEO involved
diverted it to his personal ac-
counts. The diversion was dis-
covered last week by a team of
auditors contracted to undertake
a forensic audit.
HHH
We are told that the League of
Women Voters might be broke.
Our contact in the League tells
that some people fighting for the
control of the League seem to
have the impression that taking
control of the NGO will see them
also take control of millions of shil-
lings from donors. The truth is that
donors withdrew funding to the
League soon after wrangles broke
out more than a year ago.
 
HHH
Remember Johnnie Carson,
the former US ambassador to
Kenya? We hear he might be
promoted to take up the post of
Secretary of State for Africa, a
job, we hear the current US am-
bassador Michael Ranneberger
has been hop-
ing for. Car-
son, has been
serving as
Senior Vice
President of
the National
Defense
University in
Washington,
DC since he
left Kenya.
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