Zitto now faces court over Swiss billions ‘lies’

Dodoma. The government said yesterday it intends to file a case against Mr Zitto Kabwe (Kigoma North-Chadema) for allegedly lying about the billions of shillings stashed away in Switzerland.

Attorney General Frederick Werema said in Parliament that Mr Kabwe misled the House and the special committee formed to investigate the matter.

He said Mr Kabwe has no tangible evidence and that what he has been claiming in and outside the parliament were “all lies”.

Mr Kabwe has repeatedly alleged that about Sh300 billion of taxpayers’ money is stashed away in Swiss banks and more than Sh1 trillion in Jersey Islands, but the government is not willing to recover the cash.

But yesterday the AG, who was winding up debates on reports tabled by various parliamentary committees, said the committee formed to probe Mr Kabwe’s allegations, was doing everything in its capacity to establish where the money was hidden and by whom.

However, Mr Werema said Mr Kabwe has so far failed to prove in Parliament and before the committee that what he has been claiming was true.

Earlier, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda stunned the House by saying he would be happy and relieved if the law makers were to move a vote of no confidence on him.

He was reacting to calls by some Members of Parliament that he should be sacked.

Mr Pinda said – as he was fielding responding to questions from MPs – that this would save him a lot of energy and time that he has dedicated to serve the government and the nation.

“If you decide to judge this PM by looking at (the performance of) two or three ministries alone you will be misjudging him. I am an overall supervisor of more than 20 ministries and it is my conviction that most of these have been performing well.

“But, if you initiate a vote of no confidence and other MPs support the motion, I am ready to face the music,” Mr Pinda said when reacting to a question asked by Ms Rukia Kassim Ahmed (Special Seats – CUF).

Ms Kassim had gathered courage to ‘take the bull by the horns’ after several days of volleys of accusations over the incompetence of some ministers with several ministers suggesting that it was Mr Pinda who should be taken to task as the overall supervisor of the government.

Mr Pinda challenged the MPs to not only be good at complaining, but also take action in order to rectify the situation.

He said he had not applied for the job and it was obvious that the person who had appointed him would not hesitate to remove him if he thought that he was not delivering.

“The good thing is that if the Prime Minister is not performing, it is the matter of the appointing authority, which is President, to replace him. But, on the other hand, you, in your capacity as MPs, have the mechanism remove a sitting Prime Minister. Bring a vote of no confidence if you think that this Prime Minister is not performing,” he challenged.

Earlier, Mr Pinda also reacted to public statement made by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) secretary general, Mr Abdulrahman Kinana, accusing several ministers of sleeping on their jobs.

“I’ve heard the statement through the media but because that is not how we work, we’ll sit and listen to him. I‘m sure that he will give us details of what he believes should be done, including how best to deal with ministers whom he thinks are not performing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister yesterday promised that a statement would be submitted to Parliament detailing how money obtained by the government from BAE Systems of UK as radar change was spent.

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