Renowned blogger Robert Alai now says it’s only a matter of hours if not days for treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich to be relieved off his duties by President Uhuru Kenyatta.
For the last three days, Rotich has appeared at DCI headquarters where he has been grilled over fraudulent payment of Sh21 billion meant for construction of Kimwarer and Aror dams.
In a tweet on Friday, Alai claimed that opposition leader Raila Odinga has convinced President Uhuru Kenyatta to dismiss Rotich as part of the measure to resuscitate the economy of the country.
“Henry Rotich just about to be sacked. The whole economic mess is going to be blamed on him. Raila personally pushing for his removal and President has agreed that someone has to be let go. Might spend time defending himself. The economy is in a MESS!” he tweeted.
Already, Alego-Usonga MP Samuel Atandi has ignited calls to have Rotich take responsibility, in a scandal that has seen DP William Ruto come in defense of the treasury.
“I want to be the first person to call on Rotich to resign. Just as I urged President Uhuru Kenyatta to sack Rashid Echesa as Sports CS, I want to urge him to fire Rotich,” Mr Atandi said.
“Mr Rotich must just be fired. This dam scandal is his scandal,” he added.
“The PS is the ministry’s accounting officer, and he needs to account for what has been issued to us before we finalise the investigations,” a source privy to the investigations said.
The Treasury and Mr Rotich have been tasked to answer numerous questions about his interactions, conversations and correspondence with Italian company CMC di Ravenna, which was paid an advance of Sh7.8 billion for the construction of the Kimwarer and Arror multipurpose dams in Kerio Valley some 14 months ago.
The contractor has since gone to court in Italy seeking protection from creditors.