Land of scandals

At around the same time, the De La Rue scandal came to light. It is believed that the scandal cost the then deputy governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Mrs Jacinta Mwatela, her job.

Mrs Mwatela who headed CBK’s tendering committee is said to have opposed the renewal of the De La Rue contract. De La Rue has won most of the contracts through single-sourcing, which Mrs Mwatela had described as illegal.

The Government is said to have lost billions of shillings in the printing of currency, hence Mrs Mwatela’s demand that the tendering be done competitively.

Mrs Mwatela was transferred to the Ministry of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Areas as a permanent secretary. She turned down the job and resigned from the Civil Service.

With her departure, the trail on the De La Rue saga seems to have gone cold. At NSSF, pensioners are said to have lost over Sh3 billion through dubious investments, including the sinking of about Sh1.5 billion in Discount Securities, a trouble stock brokerage firm that has since been put under statutory management.

The revelation followed an intense power struggle pitting Labour minister John Munyes against former managing trustee Rachel Lumbasyo.

The minister wanted to edge out Mrs Lumbasyo to pave way for investigations into the operations of the fund. But the board of trustees resisted.

The entire board was sent packing in December after it emerged that the fund might have lost more than Sh3 billion through dubious transactions.

When the National Rainbow Coalition swept to power in 2002, ending decades of Kanu’s hold on power, President Kibaki promised sweeping changes to root out corruption. Six years down the line, there are fears that the war on corruption is unlikely to be won especially now that President Kibaki is in his last term in office.

Global trends indicate that in their last terms in office, most presidents leave their countries’ economies in the doldrums. The situation in the US, where President George W. Bush is in his last term, is one example.

Further meltdown

After years of deregulation supported by the president’s Republican Party, key sectors of the US economy collapsed and the president appeared helpless to act. This has increased the urgency with which his successor has been acting to stop a further meltdown.

Experts say that during presidents’ last terms in office, laxity to fight graft increases as accountability diminishes.

“In one year only, Kenyans have been treated to a magnitude of corruption they have never seen. We want a major shake-up and we want action from the Government and agencies that were created to fight corruption,” said Law Society of Kenya’s Okong’o O’Mogeni.

He said the Judiciary should learn from the experiences of South Africa where ANC chairman Jacob Zuma is facing corruption charges.