Nairobi — The tenure of Mr Justice Aaron Ringera as the Kenya anti-corruption boss was put in doubt on Wednesday night after Parliament declared his reappointment by President Kibaki illegal.

It forced Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta to withdraw the Appropriations Bill, which would have given government ministries authority to draw cash from the Treasury.

He took the decision after it became apparent that MPs were determined to use the Bill to deny the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) money to run its operations because of Mr Ringera's reappointment, a move that would effectively have led to the graft body's collapse.

The MPs accused President Kibaki of disregarding the law in appointing Mr Ringera without consultation with the KACC advisory board and Parliament.

In declaring Mr Ringera's second term illegal, the House also shot down the reappointment of two of Mr Ringera's deputies, Ms Fatuma Sichale and Dr Smokin Wanjala.

It now remains to be seen whether President Kibaki will rescind the appointments or if Mr Ringera, Dr Wanjala and Ms Sichale will tender resignations to avoid the entire commission grinding to a halt after having its funds cut off by MPs.

It was another show of might by Parliament, which has taken on the Executive on various issues. MPs rejected pleas by Justice and Constitutional minister Mutula Kilonzo and other government officials for the House to let the courts interpret the law.

MPs had earlier defeated a last-minute bid by MPs supporting the appointment through a motion seeking to delete from the report the clause annulling the President's reappointment of the officials.

A government taskforce report on Mau Forest Complex had been diluted on Tuesday, and Ndaragwa MP Jeremiah Kioni proposed similar amendments, which were thrown out by an overwhelming 86 MPs against 45. One MP abstained.

The two committees on Delegated Legislation, and on Justice and Legal Affairs, would have suffered a major dent in their thoroughness if the House deleted the proposal to annul the gazette notice appointing the KACC top brass.

It would have meant the committees' report was adopted but without the President's move being declared illegal. Special Programmes minister Naomi Shaban seconded the motion and pleaded with the MPs to "respect the President's decision to reappoint the KACC bosses."

She said the committee on Delegated Legislation had been given a lot of powers, including the power to annul subsidiary legislation, adding that MPs should "forgive President Kibaki for forgetting that MPs were following what he was doing".

The minister, who spoke in Kiswahili, was backed by Public Health minister Beth Mugo who said Mr Ringera should be judged by his work. She accused his critics of seeking to settle scores.

Lands minister James Orengo, Immigration's Otieno Kajwang' and Gwassi MP John Mbadi opposed the amendment saying it would defeat the motion's cause. Temporary deputy Speaker Philip Kaloki was faced with Points of Order from members opposed to the amendments, but he insisted that the debate go on as it had been approved by the Speaker.

Mr Orengo said Section 85 of the Constitution gives Parliament powers to revoke Executive orders, "otherwise our role as MPs will have been compromised. The revocation does not need a Bill". Mr Mbadi said the motion would lose significance if the amendments were done. The country, he said, had gone through two autocratic regimes and was now on its third and the trend had to stop.

He said reappointing KACC bosses without following the law cheated Kenyans of their rights. Gichugu MP Martha Karua said it would be wrong for the President to continue making unprocedural appointments.

The former minister said it was because of sycophancy and failure to question the Executive that big scandals like Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing occurred in the Moi and Kibaki eras. "It is wrong to use knowledge you gained in school to mislead the President. The days of sycophancy are over. The President failed to follow the right procedure," she said.

She added that it will be wrong for directors of a commission which takes people to court for abuse of office to accept irregular appointments and urged MPs to debate on the basis of nationalism and not ethnicity, friendship or partnership grounds.

Moving the motion, the chairperson of the committee on delegated legislation Ms Amina Abdalla maintained that the reappointments of the three KACC directors was unprocedural because the President had failed to follow the provisions of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act.

Ms Abdalla dismissed arguments that the Act gave the President power to reappoint the three directors without consulting the board and Parliament.

"The law does not say that there will be a different procedure to be used in the reappointment of directors," argued Ms Abdalla. Attempts to scuttle the debate on grounds that the motion was not properly before the House were thwarted by the deputy speaker, Farah Maalim.

Mr Kioni had stood on a point of order as Ms Abdalla was moving the motion, arguing that the minutes of the sittings of the two joint committees were not appended to the report as required by the Standing Orders.

Ms Abdalla told the House that the two committees had established that the President did not exercise his Executive prerogative to make the reappointments without following the procedure set out in law. She argued that " a Parliament that has powers to enact or repeal laws obviously has powers to amend a mere gazette notice."

She accused Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo of seeking to divert attention from the issue of whether the reapppointments were within the law or not by politicising the debate.

"The minister for Justice has been the general in diverting attention, he claimed that some of us are against Ringera because we want our relatives to get the job," she said. She also said Mr Musyoka had done Parliament a "great disservice" by accusing MPs from the Party of National Unity (PNU) of lacking in loyalty by calling for Mr Ringera's removal.

She also censured government whip Jakoyo Midiwo for saying that MPs from the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) would support the adoption of the report becuase Prime Minister Raila Odinga was not consulted in the reappointments.

Seconding the motion, Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Mohammed said the reappointments were undermining the spirit of reforms in the country. He argued that the law vested the powers to vet the performance of candidates for the KACC jobs in the advisory board and Parliament.

Advisory board members were competent enough to appraise the directors, he said, adding "it is not for the Justice minister to appraise" because he "appears nowhere in the Act."

Opposing the motion, Mr Kilonzo maintained that the President had acted legally in reappointing Mr Ringera because the first schedule of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act gave him the powers to reappoint KACC directors.

He also argued that Parliament lacked the capacity to determine whether the reappointments were legal or illegal. He suggested that the matter be referred to the courts of law.

He defended President Kibaki against accusations that he was not committed to the fight against corruption, arguing the President had presided over the enactment of several laws to fight corruption, including the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, the Public Officer Ethics Act, the Mutual Legal Assistance Bill and the Anti-money Laundering Bill already before Parliament.

Defence assistant minister David Musila opposed Mr Ringera's reappointment saying he had failed to steer the fight against corruption. He said his conscience could not allow him to support the President's move.

"During his first stint at the job, was he successful? The answer is no. What is the country's mood regarding his reappointment. Do Kenyans support it? Obviously not," said Mr Musila. He accused Mr Ringera of destroying the careers of many individuals in his fight against graft and asked him not to embarrass the President and resign.