Three NGO bosses yesterday disowned an affidavit sent to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission claiming Devolution CS Mwangi Kiunjuri demanded a Sh20 million bribe from them.
Through their lawyers, the three denied meeting at a hotel in Nairobi to raise 'facilitation' money for Kiunjuri to gazette a bill without amendment.
Kiunjuri also told the Star on Monday that the affidavit was "rubbish and propaganda".
It is believed that the disinformation could be part of a power struggle designed to discredit Kiunjuri.
The affidavit on the alleged bribery allegations and abuse of office was lodged by a Ms Delphine Bram Christopher.
In a joint statement on Tuesday, Irungu Houghton, Associate Director of the Society for International Development, George Kegoro, Executive Director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and Paul Healey, Country Director of Trocaire International, dismissed as fabrication the reports that they met Kiunjuri and agreed to pay him a Sh20,000,000 bribe to facilitate the passage of the Public Benefits Organizations Act 2013 without amendments.
The affidavit sent to the EACC with Christopher as the sole signatory further claimed that Kiunjuri's Senior Advisor Wambui Kimathi received an initial amount of Sh10,000,000 on his behalf on September 5, 2016.
"We take great exception to these unfounded, baseless and slanderous allegations. They are meant to discredit on-going efforts to transform the NGO sector and the leadership at the NGO Bureau," said the three directors.
The three also denied meeting the CS or his Senior Advisor to facilitate the payment of the alleged bribe on September 9.
"We wish to categorically state that the undersigned did not meet either the Cabinet Secretary or his Senior Advisor at Hotel Villa (Rosa) Kempinski towards the end of July. Furthermore, at no one time have the aforementioned either individually or jointly met the supposed author Delphine."
They say the only meeting they attended on the said date was at Kiunjuri's office at the Ministry of Devolution and Planning and that meeting was also attended by the media and other sector leaders.
They said that Christopher did not attend the meeting as she claimed in her letter to the EACC.
"The said paper curiously does not provide verifiable details of the author nor the organization she supposedly represents. An internet search produces no results either. She is not known to us and we highly suspect she does not exist. We therefore request the public to treat these fictitious allegations with the contempt they deserve," said the statement.
"We will treat any reproduction of these unsubstantiated allegations as libelous," concluded the statement.
The affidavit sworn by Delphin Bram Christopher on October 6, 2016 says she resides in Kenya and works for International Aid Agencies in Nairobi. She gave P.O. Box 834-00157, Nairobi as her address.
"...worried at the nature of the proposed amendments forwarded to parliament and the imminent fear that the same may succeed...a decision was made to reach out to the cabinet secretary, Mwangi Kiunjuri on the possibility of commencing the Act immediately without any further delays," the affidavit reads.
Christopher further claimed it was during "one of our meetings at Villa Rossa Kepinsky (sic) , CS Mwangi Kiunjuri expressly told the team to ensure we deliver the "resources" to his trusted Advisor/Sister in law; Wamboi Kimathi before end of July."
She claims that Wamboi advised her and colleagues the CS wanted "USD 300,000 for him to do what we wanted." She claimed the figure was renegotiated to USD 200,000.
"The first batch of USD 100,000 will be paid immediately," Christopher's affidavit claims.
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