Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leaders on Thursday jumped to the defence of Raila Odinga in the row between him and Deputy President William Ruto over a Sh28 billion contract.
Kisumu Senator Anyang’ Nyong’o was the first to hit back at the Deputy President, describing him as a man who had a penchant for blaming his problems on Mr Odinga.
In a hard-hitting statement, Prof Nyong’o said Mr Ruto had developed a knack for refusing to apologise for the numerous scandals he has been linked to and was instead blaming Mr Odinga for his problems.
“He has no apology to make on having been involved in a questionable grabbing of his neighbour’s land. He has no apology to make over the tear-gassing of school children in Lang’ata on a land grab issue in which his name was mentioned. I am, therefore, not surprised that he has no apology to make over the scam at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret,” Prof Nyong’o said and accused Mr Ruto of looking for scapegoats in ODM.
“As for the URP leaders who are dragging my name into their Jubilee mess, let them be warned: I can sting like a bee,” he said.
Nominated MP Oburu Oginga accused Mr Ruto of jumping the gun by commenting on a matter that was already being investigated by the Public Investments Committee (PIC) of the National Assembly.
The war of words started when Mr Odinga’s former personal assistant, Mr Herbert Ojwang, told a PIC hearing last week that he was edged out of a Sh17 billion hospital rehabilitation contract by Mr Ruto’s allies because he, Mr Ojwang, was Mr Odinga’s ally.
According to Mr Ojwang, a businessman allied to Mr Ruto had demanded half of the commission that he was to earn from the contract. Mr Ojwang told the committee that the businessman, Mr Caleb Kositany, had been acting on behalf of and under the instructions of Mr Ruto.
On Wednesday, Mr Ruto told both Mr Odinga and Mr Ojwang to leave him alone or he would take a political war against Mr Odinga to the ODM leader’s doorstep.
“Some political saboteur and his personal assistant went to Parliament to tell us how I stopped their project at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret,” Mr Ruto said. “I am the one who stopped the project and have no apologies to make because the project was fraudulent, shady and corrupt from the beginning and it has no place under the Jubilee administration.”
Yesterday, however, Dr Oginga, who is Mr Odinga’s older brother, said that Mr Ojwang was a longtime business associate of Mr Ruto’s.
“It is unimaginable that Mr Ruto would want to associate the said businessman with Mr Odinga,” said Dr Oginga. “Mr Odinga dismissed Mr Ojwang over 15 years ago and he joined Mr Ruto’s camp.”
Mr Ojwang also called a press conference in Nairobi during which he denied adversely mentioning Mr Odinga in secretly recorded tapes that he gave to the parliamentary committee.
“The audio recording that I gave the PIC is not what is in circulation,” he told a news conference at the Serena Hotel.
“I wish to reiterate that I stopped working for the Right Honourable (former) Prime Minister Raila Odinga more than 10 years ago. I went into private business and I do not see why his name is being dragged into this,” he said.
According to him, the audio tape he had presented to PIC had been doctored to create the impression that Mr Odinga had received Sh5 million from a Chinese company.
He also claimed that Mr Kositany had given him a list of companies and individuals that he was required to share money with before he could be allowed to proceed with the Sh17 billion project to rehabilitate and expand the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH) in Eldoret.
“What was Caleb Kositany doing negotiating government business?” Mr Ojwang asked during the brief press conference. However, he refused to answer questions after reading his one-page statement.
On Wednesday, Mr Odinga had told Citizen TV’s Cheche show that he had not received money from a Chinese company but added that he would accept cash gifts if offered without strings attached because it is common practice for politicians to receive donations.
Yesterday, Dr Oginga told Mr Ruto to wait for the truth to be established through the investigations being carried out by PIC.
Another MP, Mr Opiyo Wandai, who had accompanied Dr Oginga, said that Mr Ruto was not Mr Odinga’s equal.
“He knows the contentious circumstances under which he became the Deputy President of this country,” Mr Wandai said and wondered why Mr Ruto had not spoken out about the contentious project until this week.
Separately, Ms Olga Karani, ODM’s deputy treasurer, also said Mr Ruto should stop introducing Mr Odinga’s name into the scandal and every other problem affecting the government.
“Kenyans are carrying a heavy load of corruption. One name keeps coming up in most of the cases of fraud, corruption, theft of public land, diversion of public funds and violation of procurement and tender rules,” said Ms Karani.
In a statement read to the Press at Orange House, Ms Karani urged Mr Ruto to use his position in government to rescue the country from runaway corruption.
