Uhuru gov't paid MPs Ksh.100K each to remove Duale as Majority Leader: Kuria

Former Gatundu South MP and ex-Cabinet Secretary Moses Kuria has sensationally repeated claims that the Uhuru Kenyatta administration paid Members of Parliament to oust then Garissa Township lawmaker, and now Health minister, Aden Duale as National Assembly Majority Leader in 2020.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s The Explainer show on Tuesday night, Kuria stated that lawmakers were each given Ksh.100,000 to support Duale’s replacement, then Kipipiri MP Amos Kimunya.

This came after a decision was made during a Jubilee Parliamentary Group meeting chaired by then President Uhuru Kenyatta at the KICC.

He went on to add that he waved the cash on the floor of the House and offered to return it; an incident he insisted was captured in the Parliamentary Hansard.

"In the 12th Parliament, we were given some money by the Uhuru Kenyatta regime to remove Aden Duale as the Majority Leader. It is on Hansard that I waved the money I was given there. You cannot say it doesn’t happen," Kuria said.

"We were given Ksh.100,000 per person to remove Aden Duale and put in place Amos Kimunya. And I went to the floor of the House and said this is the money I was given and I offered to give it back."

Kuria first made the claim publicly in 2021, when he told the BBC that MPs had received “facilitation” to endorse Kimunya.

At the time, he admitted accepting the money and said he was willing to refund it, describing such payments as common practice in Parliamentary lobbying.

The Jubilee Party was then engaged in a purge of perceived rebel MPs allied to then Deputy President William Ruto, with Duale being among the key casualties.

Kuria’s revived remarks come amid heightened debate triggered by President Ruto, who recently accused MPs of demanding bribes and extorting senior government officials and Governors in exchange for favourable committee decisions and legislative support.

Speaking at the Devolution Conference held in Homa Bay last week, Ruto called out MPs he said have turned House committees into money-minting rings instead of exercising oversight responsibilities.

Citizen Digital has learnt that 'soko huru' is a colloquial term for an extortion system that members of Parliamentary committees have adopted while summoning Governors and other top government leaders.

Summoned persons pay a specific amount of money to allow committee members to be lenient on grilling the summoned individual or even deviate from publishing a credible report to the House.

The President Ruto maintained that intelligence reports availed to him revealed that a recent extortion incident saw somebody paying off Ksh.150 million to a Senate committee.

"For example, the latest soko huru in the Senate. By virtue of the position I hold, I am a consumer of raw intelligence, I know what is going on. Where does somebody find Ksh.150 million. That is money that belongs to the county," he said.

Kuria however maintains that inducements in Parliament are “bound to happen”, saying it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.