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Mbarire backs dissolution of PAC over bribery claims

Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire seen in this file photo with Embu Senator Lenny Kivuti. Photo/ FILE

Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire seen in this file photo with Embu Senator Lenny Kivuti. Photo/ FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 16 – Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire has differed with her former chairman Ababu Namwamba on the decision to dissolve the Public Accounts Committee.

Mbarire who addressed journalists after appearing before Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) detectives on Thursday said the Powers and Privileges Committee was right to recommend they be barred from sitting on the PAC.

“We no longer have the moral authority to sit there even if you are cleared…just perception alone is enough to make the person wonder whether you are the right person there,” she pointed out.

“Even if people are cleared which I believe it is going to happen, it’s just important that we place the nation before our own interests,” she said. “Unless I am cleared, I will find it hard to sit in that committee.”

Namwamba had on Wednesday said the Powers and Privileges Committee lacked the capacity to deal with the corruption issues raised, saying it was only meant to cleanse the name of the National Assembly.

PAC members had been accused of receiving Sh1.5 million Mutea Iringo when he was Interior Principal Secretary to remove his name from the committee’s report.

Iringo was under PAC investigations over how the Interior Ministry spent Sh2.9 billion from secret funds.

On Wednesday, Namwamba said the disbandment of the committee is a victory for “forces of impunity.”

He said those against the war on corruption are also behind the current wrangles and finger pointing of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Office of the Auditor General.

READ: Forces of impunity have won – Ababu

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Despite that, Namwamba said he has not fallen short of avenues to fight corruption and said he is even more energetic to do so.

“That those forces have succeeded does not dampen my spirit…I feel like I have been released to wage the battle against corruption to other forums,” he told journalists on Wednesday evening at Integrity Centre.

“I want to assure Kenyans, I have many other platforms from which I can continue waging the war against corruption,” he stated.

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