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Lawmakers yesterday told the Executive to pull out of the bilateral agreement with Italy that paved the way for the setting up of the Lugi Brogoli Malindi Space Centre following revelations that Kenya was not benefitting.

The Members of Parliament (MPs) who sit in the Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations committee chaired by Belgut MP Nelson Koech accused the Italian government of short-changing Kenya in the deal despite the centre raking in billions of shillings.

Led by Koech, MPs Yusuf Hassan (Kamukunji), Kwenya Thuku (Kinangop), Irene Kasalu (Machakos Women Rep), Moses Kirima (Imenti Central), Martha Wangari (Gilgil), Memusi Kanchori (Kajiado Central) and Caleb Amisi (Saboti) said that the deal between the two countries is one-sided and only protecting the Italian government interests yet the centre is sitting on Kenyan soil.

Said Koech: “Mr CS be assured that as a committee we will support you on this because it is clear for 60 years Kenya has suffered. As we have agreed we will tour the facility next week so that we can be able to make an appropriate decision on this.”

Their declaration came on the day Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale who had appeared before them to shed light on the matter claimed that the Italian Government had tried to make advances to both Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi during their Italy tour last week.

According to him, were it not for his advice to Rigathi not to listen to them, they would have requested a meeting with him to try and get their support to continue operating the centre in the current manner.

He said: “Even this week that ended when the Deputy President was going for a trip in Rome, before he left I had to write to him and inform him not to give them an audience because of this matter which we are dealing with,” he said.

Added: “In fact I am glad I did because I bumped into Linturi and he told me that the Italians had tried to approach him but he did not meet them because he had also been briefed by our High Commissioner there,” he said.

And immediately he was done, Wangari sought to know why Kenya has taken long to terminate the agreement yet it is clear that the country has not been benefitting from the deal.

She said: “This looks like an abusive relationship between Kenya and the Italian Government. My question is why Kenya had not taken steps in terms of exiting the agreement. Clearly this looks like a bad relationship and we must get away from it.”

Kanchori said that they will be joining their counterparts in the Implementation Committee so that they can conduct a joint investigation on the matter even as he told Duale to look for an exit plan out of the agreement.

“This agreement looks like it is one-sided because our counterparts have already broken their part of agreement. There is a need to end this agreement,” said Kanchori.

Karima said it is the high time that the Italian Government is informed that Kenya wants to exit from the agreement as it has only been losing.

“It is high time we tell them that we are exiting this close. If they are not responding to our letters when the CS raises questions, then the only thing we can do is to exit,” he said.

Kwenya said it is interesting to note that despite the Italian Prime Minister visiting Kenya and promising to deal with the matter in one months time nothing has been done so far to resolve the current stalemate.

Hassan said that the current behaviour being portrayed by the Italian government is disrespectful and degrading to Kenya and thus Kenya should consider pulling out of the treaty. Kasalu said that Kenya has no option but to exit from the agreement as for the last sixty years it has not been beneficial to them.

In his presentation, Duale assured them that Kenya is ready to take control of the center should the Kenyan government exit the agreement adding that they are already in talks with the US and India to collaborate with them in the operationalisation of the centre.

He said that there is a need to have the matter resolved as the Italian government had failed to comply with its side of its agreement and instead has been reaching out to key leaders to try and compromise them to allow them to continue operating the centre in the opaque manner they have been doing.

The Kenya –Italy Agreement on the Luigi Broglio Malindi Space Centre was ratified by the National Assembly on October 15 2020, and came into effect on December 16 2020 following completion of exchange of diplomatic notes on the agreement between the two governments.