Jubilee Members of Parliament have accused Cord leader Raila Odinga of spearheading economic sabotage campaigns against the country and called on eight people he named in Raila's Thursday Eurobond 'dossier' to sue him for libel.
The MPs drawn from both the Senate and National Assembly poked holes in Raila's allegations on how Eurobond was misappropriated claiming the former premier's statement was hollow and was only meant to keep alive his 2017 presidential ambitions.
Led by Senate Leader of Majority Kithure Kindiki, the legislators stated that by linking the foreign financial institutions to the imaginary Eurobond scam, the opposition chief is trying to alienate Kenya from the rest of the world and he should be held responsible.
Kindiki asked Kenyans to ignore Raila and his so-called dossiers and called on those mentioned to move to court and sue him 'so that he can spend 2016 cleaning his name'.
“We are asking all the public officers who were maliciously and recklessly named yesterday (Thursday) to proceed urgently to court not only to seek damages in terms of personal injury to their character but to sue the Cord leader for criminal libel in the next one week or two,” said Kindiki.
“We cannot have someone who is aspiring to lead this country to continue damaging the reputation of the same country to the international community,” he added.
On Thursday, Raila mentioned Treasury CS Henry Rotich, Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge and former Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor Njuguna Ndung'u. Also in the list were Central Bank chairman Jairus Mohammed Nyaoga and Accountant General Bernard Ndung'u.
The others were CBK acting Financial Markets Director John Birech, CBK Financial Management Director Moses Muthui and Patrick Kamau. Of those mentioned, only Nyaoga has come out to demand for an apology from Raila threatening to sue the Cord leader if his demand is not met by Monday next week.
“As a consequence of your baseless, malicious, reckless and unwarranted accusation, our client has been defamed and has suffered enormous loss and damage for which we demand that you retract your statement and proffer an appropriate apology in terms agreeable to ourselves.
Your written response on all the matters raised herein should reach our offices latest by 12 noon, Monday, 18 January 2016. Please note that unless our demands as outlined in this letter are met as indicated in the foregoing, we have instructions to forthwith institute the appropriate legal proceedings against you without further notice,” said Nyaoga through his lawyer Kennedy Ogeto.
The Jubilee leaders maintained there was nothing to hide in the Eurobond transactions and challenged Raila to give linkages on how money was lost and who was responsible. Present at the press briefing at Parliament Buildings were Kimani Ichung’wa (Kikuyu), Ferdinad Waititu (Kabete), Alice Ng'ang'a (Thika Town) and Kabando wa Kabando (Mukurwe-ini).
Ichung’wa said the former premier is only interested in sabotaging the economy of the country by making it hard for the government to borrow from the international community. This, he said, would force it to deep into the local market which will push up interests rates hence giving Raila political fodder to discredit Jubilee during 2017 campaigns.
On his part, Rotich termed Raila's assertion as nothing but outright lies and subversion of the truth for political gain at the expense of the Kenyan economy. “Clearly, these statements are meant to hurt the Kenyan Economy through sabotage by keeping away investors.
The Kenyan people must hold him to account for lost opportunities now and in the future,” said Rotich in a statement sent to newsrooms.
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