"Hot air!" Ichung'wah fires back at Raila over oil deal 'dossier'
Ichung'wah said the claims made by Raila are part of a well-choreographed campaign aimed at inciting Kenyans against the Ruto administration using the issue of cost of living.
The Kenya Kwanza administration has rubbished claims made by Azimio leader Raila Odinga that the fuel purchase deal made by President William Ruto's government and three Gulf petroleum conglomerates was a grand scam.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung'wah said the claims made by Raila are part of a well-choreographed campaign aimed at inciting Kenyans against the Ruto administration using the issue of cost of living.
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"They think they can use the masses to arm-twist the Kenya Kwanza Government to reintroduce fuel and food subsidies that were fuelling and driving corruption that was benefitting those who were in power in the previous regime," Ichung'wah said in a statement on Thursday.
"They imagine that they can use the National Dialogue process or the hogwash that we have seen being built as dossiers to blackmail the government to carry on with the state capture charade of subsidising fuel."
Raila claims
Raila on Thursday poked holes into the Government-to-Government (G-to-G) oil deal with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates claiming it was a grand scam.
Raila said there was no G-to-G and that Kenya did not sign any contract with the two Gulf nations.
"Only the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum signed a deal with state-owned petroleum companies in the Middle East. Why Ruto chose to characterise the deal as a G-to-G is the first red flag that points to mischief in this deal," Raila claimed.
"We now know that the characterization of this deal as G-to-G was meant to shield three Kenyan companies from paying 30 per cent corporate tax."
The opposition leader said Kenya is losing billions of shillings in taxes because the three companies picked to spearhead the deal do not pay the 30 per cent corporate tax.
However, in a swift rejoinder, Ichung'wah said Raila's statement was nothing short of hot air and political propaganda claiming his purported dossier lacked substance.
"Raila rightfully stated Kenya's Ministry of Energy and Petroleum signed a deal with state-owned petroleum companies in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and the UAE). If that is not a Government-to-Government deal, what else is G-to-G if not a contract between a government ministry and a state-owned corporation?" Ichung'wah posed.
On Raila's claim that Kenya sources oil products for Uganda, the Majority Leader dismissed it as a fallacy aimed at creating bad blood between the two East African nations.
"The G-to-G oil deal doesn't influence Uganda's oil imports, as the country independently procures its oil products and only transships its oil through the Kenyan pipeline," Ichung'wah stated.
"In this case, he must desist from dragging Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni's name in his shadowboxing against the Kenya Kwanza administration."
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