Questions arose yesterday as to why a parliamentary committee decided to go ahead with the vetting of Ben Chumo, the former Kenya Power CEO, a week after he was charged with abuse of office.
Chumo is being vetted for the position of chairman of the critical Salaries and Remuneration Commission.
He also was charged with conspiracy to commit economic crimes and failure to comply with procurement laws in the purchase of faulty transformers worth Sh450 million during his tenure as KP boss.
Yesterday Chumo appeared before the Joseph Limo-led Finance committee and said he was innocent.
"I never had any incident that undermined my integrity and public trust. Over the 32 years, I made investments across the country ... I have some assets in Nairobi, I collect rent," Chumo said.
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Limo defended the decision to vet Chumo, saying, “He is innocent until proven guilty.”
However, the Star separately learned that other committee members were planning to reject Chumo’s proposed appointment on basis of the charges he is facing.
National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi also defended the decision to vet Chumo, saying refusing to do so would have amounted to passing a guilty verdict.
“The precedent was set in the [former Nacada chair] John Mututho case and so MPs could not refuse to hear him out. It would have been unfair. They can use that information to make their decision,” Muturi said.
In 2013 Mututho was vetted and cleared to head the anti-alcohol and drugs authority while he was facing a Sh41 million criminal case. It concerned supply of drugs to Kenyatta National Hospital. He was acquitted.
The MPs’ decision to vet Chumo drew mixed reactions.
Lawyer Donald Kipkorir tweeted, “That Ben Chumo facing a multi-million (billion) corruption case is being interviewed by Parliament to be the Chair of Salaries Review Commission (SRC) is taking absurdity to a new level. Our MPs would have set a new moral bar (if they still had a bar) by openly dismissing him.”
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But Kariuki Mate, the former Embu county assembly speaker, said the MPs had no choice.
“It’s a statutory process. Even if the President sent the name of a corpse, the MPs have to hold a vetting exercise and inform Parliament through a report that the person nominated did not appear for vetting. Even if Chumo was a convict, on death row, the only way the Committee can inform Parliament of that fact is through a report,” Mate said.
Multiple sources within Parliament told the Star that the MPs are planning to reject Chumo’s name when the vetting report is tabled in the House this week.
It is not only the recent criminal charges that are said to have informed the MPs’ decision, but what they called his “attitude” when he was the KPLC boss.
When the MPs were passing a motion to extend the time for vetting Chumo, the majority were clear that “it was not going to be business as usual,” one MP said.
Angered by the Sara Serem-led commission’s decision to reduce their princely salaries and allowances, MPs last week gave the clearest indication yet that they will only pick ‘friendlier’ representatives to the helm of the agency and support their bid for higher pay.
“It is a commission that felt its existence was only for the legislature...This is not an ordinary nominee that the President has given us. We will put him or her on a theatre table of the House, we will dissect properly, diagnose, do a number of referrals, even if it is returning,” Duale said.
“And at the end of the day, the product that we will vet on behalf of the people of Kenya will be a product we shall be proud of and we will not regret about.”
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Minority leader John Mbadi had called for a thorough vetting, saying the next team of commissioners should be competent.
Of the 19-member committee, only nine members were present during Chumo’s vetting yesterday. Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi is said to have walked out after protesting against the committee decision to proceed on to vet Chumo.
Yesterday, Chumo defended his suitability to serve as the chairman of SRC, telling the committee that he is a man of integrity.
He told the committee at Parliament Buildings that the graft charges he is facing in court involving the loss of Sh4.5 billion in the procurement of faulty transformers occurred before he became the MD.
“Consistent with the Constitution, one is innocent until proven guilty. I am innocent, I could not have waited for 32 years I served in the company to get involved in such things,” he told the MPs.
He said he doesn’t want the money that comes with the SRC job, but wants to use his expertise in human resource management.
Chumo said, “There was not a single case that arose during my stay at KPLC and I look back with a lot of pride to that particular service. I never had any incident that undermined my integrity and public trust.”
The ex-CEO and 18 other senior managers at KPLC, including current MD Ken Tarus, are also facing charges relating to the non-procedural cancellation of the same tender.
He said he was a member of the management committee that agreed to terminate the tender after it emerged that the transformers from the supplier were faulty.
Chumo told the committee minutes of the meeting are available to show the decision was reached by the team and was not and individual one.
He said if he eventually is appointed SRC boss, he will deploy ICT to manage the payroll, saying retrenchment is not a solution to a high wage bill.
Chumo said the decision by the previous SRC to cut MPs’ and MCAs’ salaries was not prudent, adding that they should have been informed first.
“You do not take away the benefits, let alone salaries that are enjoyed by employees,” he said. Chumo said he is worth Sh212 million.
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