In what is set to go down in history as one of the most memorable, albeit villainous, scenes on live TV, Jubilee vice-chairman David Murathe and Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen tore into each other viciously, with each accusing the other of corruption, and so informed were they of the alleged corrupt deals, that they even knew the exact amounts and the names of the companies that were used as fronts.
Most disturbing, however, is that one of the parties even admitted to being a beneficiary of kickbacks during the execution of one of the contracts.
The fiery exchange unfolded on Citizen’s TV’s Newsnight, a late-night political show which was hosted by Waihiga Mwaura.
Although the debate had been a tense one from the very beginning, things spun out of control when the topic got to the issue of the scandal-ridden dams that were built on the country.
Kipchumba Murkomen blew the first salvo when he accused Murathe of skimming 10 percent of the total amount of money that the government paid for the construction of the Thwake dam.
When agitated Murathe spoke, he shot back with similar accusations saying that Murkomen and his boss had pocketed money meant for the construction of the Arror and Kimwarer dams.
Murkomen doubled down on his Thwake dam allegations, this second time dropping even the figure that he believed Murathe benefited with, quoting the colossal amount of 2billion.
Murathe noted that regardless of the alleged amount that had been paid as a kickback, work on Thwake dam took place and there were developments on the ground, unlike in the case of Arror and Kimwarer where nothing had taken place yet, money had been paid, money which Murathe insinuated wasn’t just the 7 billion that the DP once spoke of.
The former Jubilee chairman also implied that he was simply just what he referred to as an agent as Murkomen had also been an agent in the Arror and Kimwarer dams.
In the same breath, Murathe revealed that Rachel Ruto, DP Ruto’s wife, had an association with some of the companies that were contracted in lucrative tenders at the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) in 2020.
“The first five top companies that supplied KEMSA with equipment are associated with the deputy president, his wife and the 970. They know who they are, we have records and we will be tabling them soon.
That is why the KEMSA story died. The people they were looking for discovered we have nothing to do with it. I have never supplied a single mask to Kemsa.,: Murathe stated during a heated interview where he faced off with Elgeyo Marakwet senator Kipchumba Murkomen.
Indeed, politics is not for the fainthearted
During the time when the so-called Jubilee “dynamic duo” wore matching shirts, trousers, ties – and God knows what else was matching under those shirts and trousers; Ruto was a co-president in every respect, except by name.
Now, their bromance is clearly over and the once tight Uhuru Ruto relationship is unmistakably in tatters.
Any political pundit will tell you that such political arrangements, where the deputy seeks to equally share government with the boss -almost at all times – end up in political disaster and tears for the deputy.
This is given, so long as the president remains in full control of the instruments that give the state a monopoly of power. These include the military, police, and intelligence services.
Ruto refused to act like a deputy from day one. He couldn’t even allow Uhuru to make any appointments in government as president, without consulting him first. Imagine how irritating and suffocating that must have been to Uhuru.
He even insisted on choosing half of the cabinet, seeing to it that a number of powerful and lucrative ministries like those of Finance, Energy, and Agriculture were occupied by his appointees. That was Ruto’s Political suicide.
While his wishes were granted and the ministries he wanted were given to his men and women, the intelligence services kept tabs on every move Ruto and his allies made in these offices. Soon mega-corruption scandals began getting exposed in each of the ministries occupied by the DP’s people.
Somehow, each of these scandals found a way of linking itself to the DP or his close allies and clinging to them like a bad stench that refuses to go away. The Arror and Kimwarer Dams saga; the KPLC, KPC, and NCPB scandals are just but the tip of the iceberg.
It is an open secret that Ruto and his men siphoned a lot of money from the government in Jubilee’s first term.
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