Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale has been accused of accepting an out-of-court deal over the Mumias Sugar Company case after “secretly” meeting Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero.
Several Kakamega county leaders said Khalwale and Kidero met in Arusha, Tanzania last week, claiming the Senator was compromised into relenting on matters affecting the company.
They are Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali, Navakholo’s Emmanuel Wangwe, former Shinyalu MP Kizito Mugali and ODM national youth leader Rashid Mohammed.
Washiali said he went to court last Friday in a show of support for Khalwale, but that neither the Senator nor his lawyers turned up for the hearing of the case.
“This is when I confirmed that indeed money had exchanged hands between the two leaders and ‘mtetezi wa wanyonge’ was not to be trusted anymore,” he said.
Khalwale has proven to be a “cheap leader who can no longer be trusted”, he said.
“If it is true that the two met and agreed to remove the case from court. It indicates that indeed Kidero looted from Mumias,” he added.
Rashid said: “It is surprising that after standing with our brother Bonny Khalwale in court, and even being roughed up by Kidero supporters in Nairobi, where we were forced to seek refuge in the toilet, Khalwale secretly went to Arusha last week where he met Kidero for an out-of-court settlement.”
The leaders spoke at Lubanga Primary School during the burial of Matungu MP David Were’s brother, Samson Were, on Saturday.
Kidero sued Khalwale over remarks made in Mumias during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit regarding a bail-out on June 24.
The Senator accused Kidero of looting money from Mumias Sugar, which he served as managing director before becoming governor.
Khalwale described Kidero as the “prefect of the thieves” involved in the company’s downfall.
The Senator dismissed the allegations saying Rashid and other leaders were not committed to fighting corruption but seeking to achieve selfish gains.
“He was accompanying me to attract attention from other quarters. Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya noticed him and has given him money to tarnish my name. He cannot be trusted with what he says,” Khalwale said.
Speaking to the Star on phone, he clarified that he skipped the court session “because my lawyers had asked the magistrate hearing the case to quit after showing bias”.
“I have never been compromised in my life and especially not on an issue affecting the lives of my people,” he said.
“When this problem will be sorted, we shall resume with court proceedings until the end because I am determined to revive Mumias to its lost glory.’
He said he is determined to fight corruption to the end “even if other people fall off along the way and leave me alone”.
Source-the-star.co.ke
