The new sheriff in town might be new to the new position (Majority Leader) bestowed on him by the president but he is not new to Kenya’s political scene. Amos Kimunya has a trail of records in both Kibaki’s and Uhuru’s government serving at various positions.
We mostly remember him during his time as the Minister of Finance during the Kibaki regime when he was involved in the Grand Regency Hotel (Now The Hilton Hotel) scandal. At the time it is when the legislatures came up with the “Kimunya Must Go” slogan calling for his resignation after being involved in the scandal.
The Nairobi University Graduate came to parliament back in 2002 after the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) won the presidential election. During the same regime, Kibaki appointed Kimunya as the Minister of Lands and Settlement.
Kibaki later appointed him as the Minister of Finance on February 4, 2006, just a year before the end of his first term as the president. Kimunya’s appointment followed the resignation of David Mwiraria who resigned to pave way for investigations into the Anglo Leasing Scandal.
Kimunya retained his post as the Finance Minister in the Grand Coalition Cabinet, a government that was formed by Raila Odinga and Kibaki after the controversial December 2007 elections.
On July 2, 2008, Kimunya was kicked out of the office after concerns related to the sale of the Grand Regency Hotel. According to reports, the alleged hotel was sold for far less than its accurate value after being purchased by a Libyan company.
During his impeachment motion, Kimunya said that he had a clean record of fighting corruption.
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After a back and forth fight with the MPs, Kimunya resigned from the cabinet on 8 July 2008 to allow the independent commission to investigate the sale of the hotel.
Just a few days before he bowed to the public pressure to resign, Kimunya vowed to stick to his guns and wouldn’t resign from office. Kimunya went ahead to announce ” I would rather die than resign”.
On 25 November 2008, an official inquiry cleared Kimunya from the hotel’s scandal. The commission’s report on Kimunya’s case was not made public.
On 23 January 2009, the Member of Parliament for Kipipiri Constituency was reappointed to the cabinet by President Kibaki as Minister of Trade.
