A section of Jubilee MPs have railed Raila Odinga saying he has no credibility left when it comes to the discussion of oil or petroleum matters in Kenya.
This, they say, is why they were unable to take seriously his criticisms of the proposed amendments to the Petroleum Bill.
In a statement to newsrooms, the MPs said: “Kenyans will recall that Raila Odinga was closely associated with a firm named Triton international, which unlawfully acquired large quantities of petroleum, and then sold them in, costing Kenyans an estimated 7.6 billion shillings.”
The MPs who included Tetu’s Ndung'u Gethenji and nominated MP Johnson Sakaja said that to this day, the scandal remains unresolved.
“Raila is certainly a person of interest for all those who wish to discover how Kenyans were defrauded of such vast sums of public money,” they said.
In the statement, the MPs accused the former PM of engaging in corrupt dealings to acquire businesses and business partners.
“Kenyans will also recall that during his tenure as Energy Minister, Raila apparently acquired a number of unusual business partners. It has been reliably reported that a firm by the name Energem is a shareholder in Raila's Spectre International, and that some of the directors of Energem are directly connected to an investor who has been credibly accused of acquiring a substantial proportion of Guinea's mineral resources by corrupt means.”
The five MPs added, “Given these facts - his association with a straightforward scam, in which billions of shillings were stolen; and his connection with what look like attempts to steal a country's mineral resources - it's unclear why anyone would believe Raila's claims about Africa, or Kenya's, mineral wealth.”
“It may be - and here we are only speculating - that what has driven him to criticism is a combination of interests: he has involvements in the oil and petroleum business to keep safe, and he has a presidential campaign to run in 2017,” the statement concluded.
Others who signed the statement are nominated Senator Beatrice Elachi, Nairobi Woman Rep Rachel Shebesh and Runyenjes MP Cecily Mbarire.
Raila has voiced his opposition to have the Petroleum Bill amended saying doing so would water it down.