On November 20, 2018, senators were expected to vote on a report touching on the disputed Ruaraka land deal, a case that had already drawn in senior government officials.
The county Public Accounts and Investment Committee’s report recommended that Interior CS Fred Matiang’i and Education PS Belio Kipsang be held responsible for the controversy surrounding the land payment.
The House had debated the matter the previous week, with a majority of legislators backing calls for action over the irregular payment of Sh1.5 billion in the transaction.
But Majority Leader Kipchumba Murkomen pushed back against the idea that the committee should single out the two officials. He said the report was strong as an investigative document, but Parliament was not the body to assign criminal blame.
Murkomen argued that the mandate of the House was to examine the issue and pass information to the relevant agencies. In his view, only the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations could establish culpability.
“The duty of our House is to inquire and to provide information that will be used by the institution of the Director of Public Prosecution, who cannot be directed not even by us, to do proper investigations that will find criminal culpability of any individual,” he said.
The Senate was therefore left with two options: reject the report or adopt it, after a debate that had already sharpened the political and legal stakes around the Ruaraka land saga.
Related coverage at the time also noted that senators wanted Matiang’i and Kipsang investigated over the scandal, while another report captured Amina’s call for questions to be directed at Matiang’i over the purchase.
