Kimemia remains categorical that he has never participated in any partisan campaigns or used public resources to support any political candidate/FILE
In a response to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), Kimemia remains categorical that he has never participated in any partisan campaigns or used public resources to support any political candidate.
Kimemia has dismissed allegations levelled against him by CORD as “baseless, malicious, horrific and falsehoods in their entirety.”
“As a Head of Public Service I am cognisant of the fact that the office I occupy should be a role model and should at all time and circumstances be seen to uphold the law governing proper conduct of elections.”
CORD had in a letter to IEBC claimed that on February 9 Kimemia had in the company of Internal Security PS Mutea Iringo and his Treasury PS Joseph Kinyua met about 68 elders from Murang’a, Kiambu, Nakuru, Kericho and Molo at a hotel in Elementaita where support for Jubilee presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta was allegedly discussed.
Kimemia was also reported to the IEBC as having met eight provincial commissioners among other administrators where they were instructed to initiate door-to-door campaigns for Kenyatta.
CORD has also listed two other meetings on January 29 at Nairobi’s Bomas of Kenya at which Kimemia is accused of telling groups of provincial administrators they would be sacked if Odinga became president.
CORD also claimed that Kimemia had a secret late-night meeting on January 27 with Kenyatta and his running mate William Ruto at a resort on the shores of Lake Elementaita. It is not clear what was discussed at the closed-door meeting.
Kimemia in his response says that he never attended any meeting with Kenyatta and Ruto in Elementaita.
Instead he says that Iringo and Kennedy Kihara who is the liaison secretary for Parliament and commissions, briefed the provincial administrators on the National Government Coordination Act (on January 27).
He insists that he left the venue of the meeting after the morning session.
Kimemia has further denied attending the meeting on February 9 as he had accompanied President Mwai Kibaki to a tour of development projects in Othaya Constituency.
He says that he has no powers to directly summon members of the provincial administration whose immediate command he say is the PS and minister in charge.
“I have therefore never met any of the 68 elders to politic about Hon Kenyatta singularly or with PS Iringo and PS Kinyua. Indeed, I urge the IEBC to get to the bottom of this matter so that these falsehoods can be exposed,” he said in his response dated February 22.
“If such a meeting with eight PCs took place together with DCs and County Commissioners, the National Intelligence Services, National Police Service and the ministry headquarters will be in the know,” Kimemia insisted.
Later on Tuesday, government spokesman Muthui Kariuki also defended the civil servants insisting that Kenyatta was capable of campaigning for himself without support from the government.
He dismissed the claims by CORD saying that they could be could be a ploy to create a basis for rejection of election results should they lose.
IEBC is expected to summon both the accusers and parties mentioned in the complaint to deliberate the matter.