8 July 2008
editorial
Nairobi — The longer top officials named in the Grand Regency Hotel scandal defy pressure to step aside, the more the issue is likely to take political undertones that are not healthy for the Grand Coalition government.
Finance minister Amos Kimunya should have voluntarily stepped aside the moment Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in him. Custom and practice indeed dictate that one so censured resigns.
Mr Kimunya was in addition - alongside Central Bank Governor Njuguna Ndung'u and National Security Intelligence Service Director-General Michael Gichangi - found by a Cabinet committee to have played a role in the affair.
The Cabinet committee recommended that all three step aside. The more they hold on, the more the matter assumes political overtones.
Already, from the public exchanges, it is becoming a matter of finger-pointing and accusations based more on politics than the real issue at hand.
We are also witnessing the embarrassing spectacle of Cabinet ministers hurling public accusations and insults against each other.
It is indeed disgraceful when ministers from either side try to politicise the issue and bring in such matters as the rivalries between PNU and ODM.
The longer the stalemate goes on, the more it will provide room for those bent on forever seeking political advantage and the more it will amplify differences within the coalition government.
If Mr Kimunya and the others named will not step aside pending fuller investigations, then the President must act. A speedy investigation can quickly get to the bottom of the issue.
Meanwhile it is also imperative that the two principals in the coalition, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, whip into line unruly ministers.
They must make it clear that ministers, even in a coalition, are still bound by certain rules on matters such as the public pronouncements they make.
It must be made clear to those who speak as if they are intent on undermining the very Government they serve that they will be given a chance to make whatever utterances they want from the back benches.
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