Okemo Must Resign As Finance Chairman

Nairobi Star (Nairobi)

20 May 2011

opinion

A warrant of arrest has been issued for the Chairman of the Parliamentary Finance Committee in Jersey. The Jersey police want Chrysanthus Barnabas Okemo and Samuel Kimuchu Gicheru to answer multiple charges of illegally defrauding the Kenya Power and Lighting Company of at least Sh390 million (UK£3 million) between 1999 and 2002. At the time Okemo was Minister of Finance and Gichuru was Managing Director of KPLC.

Okemo is now exercising the oversight role for MPs on the Kenya economy. It was Okemo who was leading the investigation to decide whether Charterhouse Bank was a trustworthy bank that could be allowed to re-open.

Yesterday Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund because he is facing rape charges in New York.

Okemo must resign immediately as Chairman of the parliamentary Finance committee. He cannot possibly claim the necessary integrity for this job unless he is acquitted in this fraud case.

Kenya should not wait for an extradition request. It should execute the warrants of arrest on behalf of the Island of Jersey and send both Gichuru and Okemo to the UK for trial. Then Kenya could genuinely claim that it is working to clean up its legislature and judiciary.

Quote of the day: “A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.” – British philosopher John Stuart Mill was born on May 20, 1806

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