Cord leader Raila Odinga yesterday attended a court session to show solidarity with anti-graft crusader John Githongo.
Former Cabinet minister Chris Murungaru has sued Githongo for defamation.
After the session, Raila told the press he is an interested party in the case because he sat in the Cabinet committee that investigated Murungaru’s involvement in the Anglo Leasing scandal.
“This is a matter of national interest. I was a member of Cabinet Anti-Corruption Committee, which dealt with this issue,” he said.
It is not clear whether Raila will testify.
The former Prime Minister urged the government to prosecute those responsible for milking public coffers dry.
Raila said the government should emulate the UK, which is prosecuting a company that printed ballot papers for the March 4, 2013 elections over bribery allegations.
“In the UK, the British government can go against the company, but no action has been taken here against the culprits. Its a shame on Africa,” he said.
Raila said it has taken the government so long to prosecute those behind the multibillion-shilling Anglo Leasing scandal yet the Swiss authorities have decided to take action on its part.
The Swiss government has frozen bank accounts holding money believed to be Anglo Leasing proceeds.
Raila said corruption has paralysed institutions and unless the government takes drastic action, graft “will not leave the country any time soon”.
In the defamation case, Githongo has been sued by Murungaru for allegedly associating him with the Anglo Leasing scandal.
Murungaru says a dossier by Githongo implicating him is malicious.
He says following Githongo’s dossier, he was investigated by the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, which was then headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Murungaru says the committee, in its findings, did not implicate him and did not make any recommendations against him.
He says the dossier is not based on any evidence, but is “a pack of conjecture, falsehoods, rumours, gossip, inconclusive inferences, suspicion and hearsay”.
The hearing of the case continues.
– the-star.co.ke
