KELLY NARU –PHILANTHROPIST OR ROBIN HOOD?

By Stanley M (Former National Parliament Staff) post on PNGBLOGS
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Many people were wondering this lawyer-philanthropist-come-politician has standing in the nation, worthy of the bible verses he nit-picked on Friday 22nd July to sway the support of Members to Peter O’Neill. He argued that the judiciary was unconventionally interfering with the functions of Parliament and so Parliament had to put up a similar fight.

But not many are aware of the past of Kelly Naru, a rich lawyer who was dubbed by many as a philanthropist. He dished out cash to people in need prior to becoming a politician. Was he genuinely generous or was it a vote buying bribery exercise he was carrying out prior to standing for public office? Interestingly, all those generosity ceased since he became the Governor of Morobe.

Where did Kelly Naru get all those monies from? We know lawyers do make a lot of money but we also know that some of them make money through illegitimate means like the controversial Paul Paraka.

From information gathered, Kelly Naru was on a retainer with the National Parliament during the 10 year reign of controversial and now deceased speaker, Jeffrey Nape. It is believed his retainer fee was around K300,000 per month. That means that in a year, he would make around K3.6million. If he attended to some cases, that figure is likely to be higher. Now that is a lot of money. What was he doing?

The National Parliament has its own lawyers and we also have the Office of the First Legislative Counsel who does most of the legislative drafting work for bills. When major constitutional issues arise and need Court determinations, successive governments would hire Queens Counsels from overseas act for Parliament as is done these days. So again, what was Kelly Naru doing that he deserved the whooping K300,000 per month?
Interestingly, prior to and after Kelly Naru’s retainer with the National Parliament, there is no such arrangement. No lawyer is on retainer.

Did the Attorney General authorise Kelly Naru to be on a blanket retainer for the National Parliament for all those years? Information from those in the know is that there was no such brief out instructions to Kelly Naru Lawyers. That is the very thing that Paul Paraka is accused of –payment for no authorisation and no work. But Kelly Naru somehow got away with it.

I guess he was smart. He used his ill-gotten gains to give people in need. Every time he paid some needy person, all the cameras and media would be lined up and he did a good publicity for himself. He painted an image of being a philanthropist who is out there helping the needy out of what he had earned through honest hard work. Was he???

Kelly Naru is a Robin Hood. But Robin Hood stood for the notion of stealing from the rich and feeding the poor. Kelly Naru stole from the people (State) and fed the people. He is a fraudster turned Robinhood. He is no different to Paul Paraka.

He was dealing business with one of the worst corrupt speaker. Now the Speaker is gone –natural justice had taken place. Kelly Naru’s wife is also gone. Kelly Naru is now reciting bible verses to advance his political survival.

This pretentious philanthropist is a fraudster and needs to be investigated like Paul Paraka.