Muturi defends Anglo-Leasing motion

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi has defended Parliament’s decision to debate the government’s proposal to pay companies behind Anglo-Leasing contracts.

The government was at liberty to seek Parliament’s approval before spending funds on the contracts, Mr Muturi said Monday.

He said that despite feelings that the contracts were not entered into in a transparent manner, the government has lost the case questioning the alleged malpractices in executing the transactions.

“The government is between a rock and a hard place. It’s the right of any one trading with the government to seek legal redress if he thinks his contractual agreement has been injured.”

The Speaker said there was a need to re-look into the way the country committed itself in agreements and questioned why the government accepted to have cases involving the Anglo-Leasing transactions determined in foreign courts.

“This is a legal matter. It’s no longer political. Let’s blame those who entered into these agreements,” Mr Muturi told the Press, noting that it was up to Parliament to decide whether to approve the payments.

The Speaker’s role would merely be to preside over the process, he said.

The agreements were reportedly entered into before 2002 but it was in 2003 that the public knew about what was happening when the government sought to pay for the contracts.

A gruelling battle is expected in Parliament when MPs start debating the government’s proposal to pay the companies behind Anglo-Leasing contracts.

Whereas some MPs are convinced the increasing debt due to interest rates should be paid to save Kenyans the agony of having the country’s assets attached to recover the amount in future, some read mischief in the plan.

The Senate’s Finance Committee is opposed to the idea while Cord MPs are concerned that the government might use its majority representation in the National Assembly toendorse an “illegal transaction”.

Committee chairman Billow Kerrow (Mandera, URP) and Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale (Kakamega, UDF) claimed that some government officials, who initially opposed payments for the contracts, had changed their minds.

Some of the MPs, they said, were in the Ninth Parliament which asked the government not to pay for the contracts until the authenticity of the agreements entered into was verified.

Weak defence

“We should know who owns these companies and be taken through the defence that Attorney General Githu Muigai presented before the foreign courts that were interrogating this matter,” Dr Khalwale said.

“Kenya might have presented a weak defence that saw the tribunal arbitrating against this matter quash our defence.”

The senator accused some legislators of “worshipping party loyalty at the expense of taxpayers’ interests”.

The Anglo-Leasing debt is said to have increased toSh125 billion from Sh54 billion in 2003 due to accruing interest.