The Elgeyo Marakwet Senator said the committee is “so obsessed” with his name instead of pursuing the real culprits and the loss of Sh791 million from NYS/FILE
ELGEYO MARAKWET, Kenya Dec 15 – Senator Kipchumba Murkomen has accused Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee of bias in the investigations on the National Youth Service scandal in which his law firm was implicated.
The Elgeyo Marakwet Senator said the committee is “so obsessed” with his name instead of pursuing the real culprits and the loss of Sh791 million from NYS.
“What is it this obsession with diverting attention from stealing of the public resources, so that it is becoming juicy or as Americans or other people will say in a loose talk that it is becoming sexy to mention my name at the expense of actually dealing with the issues of loss of public resources,” the Senator told journalists, at a briefing transmitted live by KTN News television.
He also challenged the committee led by Rarieda MP Nicholas Gumbo to prove to Kenyans that its members have not been compromised in the investigations.
“Mr Gumbo and your committee members give Kenyans confidence that you are not using the privileged positions as members of Parliament to raise Christmas gifts or campaign money. Publish all your accounts for all committee members, your firms and those of your associates then we as Kenyans will say that the team have never received money from anybody, I challenge that committee,” he said.
But in a swift rejoinder, Gumbo told a lawyer sent to defend the law firm at the PAC that they were politicising the NYS investigations.
“The person politicising proceedings of this committee is none other than Murkomen, he is busy sending me texts here. He has also tried to fight the vice chair of this committee in public because he claims the vice chair is not defending him,” Gumbo said.
On Thursday, Murkomen tore into former Devolution CS Anne Waiguru saying: “It is laughable that the most responsible culprit is busy running around that she wants to go and manage public resources at the expense of answering questions that are related to corruption,” he said of Waiguru who is seeking to vie for the Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat in next year’s elections.
Waiguru had named Murkomen as one of the leaders who allegedly visited her office to plead for the release of pending payments for their clients. Murkomen denies the allegations.
A lawyer from Sing’oei, Murkomen and Sigei Advocates firm appeared before the PAC to shed light on its alleged involvement in the NYS saga, in which several suspects -including Peter Mangiti who served as Permanent Secretary at the Devolution Ministry- are facing charges related to the mega fraud.
Although Waiguru was questioned by the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) over the matter, there has been no indication that she is a suspect, with the anti graft agency only indicating that she is a witness despite pressure to have her prosecuted.
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