Members of the committee inspecting the controversial land in this file photo.
NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 13 – Twenty four MPs who sit on Parliament’s Lands Committee have signed a petition for a vote of no-confidence against their chairman Alex Mwiru of Tharaka claiming that he is sabotaging the probe into the 134-acre Karen land saga.
The MPs claim Mwiru has been deliberately sabotaging efforts to have directors of Muchanga Limited and Telesource.Com or their lawyers invited to give their evidence and submit necessary documents to prove ownership of the land.
They further accused their chairman of failing to sign summons requiring Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu to re-appear before them on Thursday.
“During our deliberations we saw that there were a lot of grey areas that we did not understand. The committee did a resolution that we as a committee are losing confidence in the manner that the chair of this committee is handling affairs of this committee in terms of communication, in terms of threat messages. This committee has initiated a process of having a new chairman,” committee vice-chairman Moses ole Sakuda told journalists after the MPs held closed-door talks.
The legislators had issued an ultimatum to Ngilu to face them on Wednesday or face a censure motion after she failed to honour a date with them on Tuesday.
Sakuda said those who signed the petition claim Mwiru has been issuing them with unspecified threats.
“A number of members this morning received some calls and messages saying that this meeting will not happen and the committee will not convene until I say so, and that is coming from the chairman. Others have received messages that say whatever you are planning to do will not happen, if you are planning to remove me, forget about it, it will not happen.”
Sakuda was joined by MPs Esther Mathenge and John Kihagi in accusing their embattled chairman of colluding with Ngilu on the Karen land saga.
“If a majority of members are saying they have no confidence in the chairman, that should be a strong statement that maybe it may not just be in this relation to this communication of the CS, you may find out there might other issues before that,” said the committee vice-chairman.
“If both of them disappear, what do you conclude, they are hiding something,” said Mathenge.
Following the petition, National Assembly’s Liaison Committee which is chaired by Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso has three days to invite the chairman to defend himself before making a decision on having a new chairman voted in.
The committee is investigating the land tussle and had summoned Ngilu after visiting the controversial land valued at Sh8 billion.
The issue is before the courts pitting businessman Horatius Da Gama Rose who is represented by lawyer Cecil Miller and former NSSH managing trustee Jos Konzolo.
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