Linturi: Uhuru forced me to withdraw Waiguru ouster Motion
Former Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi has said he was pressured in 2014 by President Uhuru Kenyatta to withdraw a censure Motion against then Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru in the National Assembly.
Mr Linturi, President William Ruto’s Agriculture Cabinet Secretary nominee, told MPs vetting him for the position on Friday that he abandoned the Motion in mid-June 2014 as he could not withstand the immense pressure from State House.
Mr Linturi linked the former President’s two top aides --his Private Secretary Jomo Gecaga and then Solicitor General Njee Muturi-- to his controversial U-turn even after obtaining the requisite signatures from MPs backing the Motion, which was dropped on a technicality as he was absent from the House when it came up for consideration.
Mr Linturi said the letter to withdraw the Motion, which he claimed he signed in the presence of the President, was promptly delivered to the then Speaker Justin Muturi at night, triggering events that would let Ms Waiguru, who at the time was battling a storm over the Sh791 million National Youth Service (NYS) scandal, off the hook in the National Assembly.
“For those that have never known, when a gun is put on your head, and you understand when you have a CEO who is almost a terrorist. There are many people that cannot withstand the pressure, intimidation and threats that exist,” Mr Linturi told the Committee on Appointment chaired by National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula.
“The letter to withdraw the Motion was drafted by Njee Muturi, I was asked to sign. Speaker Muturi was called, I think he was in Kilimani, he was told to go back to the House, that there is a letter that is being brought to withdraw that Motion,” he added.
Mr Linturi went on: “Jomo Gecaga, past 8 O’clock, delivered the letter to the then Speaker Muturi. Those are the circumstances that I found myself in. And I signed the letter and the President was there then.”
“It is from that time when my relationship (with the President) went south. That thing has really tormented me,” he said.
But his account of the circumstances leading to the withdrawal of the Motion differs from another version by Aldai MP Marianne Kitany.
Ms Kitany, Mr Linturi’s estranged lover, told a court that it was then Deputy President William Ruto who tasked her to persuade Mr Linturi to withdraw the Motion.
Ms Kitany at the time served as the DP’s Chief of Staff.
In 2019, she informed a court that she first met the lawmaker at the DP’s office in 2013.
She told Chief Magistrate Peter Ngare that Mr Linturi seduced her in the course of discussions about Ms Waiguru’s ouster Motion.
While testifying in one of the cases she had filed against Mr Linturi, Ms Kitany, said the two love birds were in Naivasha "having a good time" on the day the MP was to move the Motion in Parliament.
“And when the impeachment Motion was first tabled in Parliament, Linturi and I were at Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge having a good time,” Ms Kitany testified.
Ms Kitany recalled that the then Igembe South MP frequented the DP’s office after the March 4, 2013, General Election “with a lot of complaints.”
“The DP, as a result, gave me strict instructions to deal with Linturi’s regular complaints,” Ms Kitany told the court.
She explained it’s through this constant interaction that she was tasked to persuade the MP to drop the Motion to impeach Ms Waiguru.
“Between 2013 and when he filed the impeachment Motion against Waiguru in May 2014, Linturi and I hadn’t gotten into a romantic relationship,” she told the court.
