Renewed anti-graft crusade a carbon copy of earlier State mission

• Talk of taming corruption with little action from the top doesn’t add up

Last Friday’s meeting of senior government officials provided yet another forum for the high and mighty to moan about corruption, and they did it so well against the backdrop of beautiful speeches delivered by the two men in whose hands Kenya’s destiny lies, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The speeches were all carbon copies of those made some time back at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies during a coalition Cabinet bonding session, when the President said all ministers would be required to step aside if caught in any impropriety.

But no heads have rolled yet from high offices. What could have gone wrong? Was all that tough talk a few years ago just idle banter?

The acting director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission came very close to providing the answer to this question when he addressed the meeting.

Dr John Mutonyi painted the picture of a Siamese kind of relationship between corruption and politics that makes fighting the vice a Herculean task.

Powerful individuals within the coalition, he said, are responsible for the rising frequency of corrupt tendencies in government, and stopped short of asking the two principals why they hadn’t cracked the whip on the errant lot.

No wonder, then, that as soon Dr Mutonyi rose to speak, the President’s security detail ordered photojournalists to turn off their cameras and unplugged their voice recorders from the console at the back of the room.

Still in office

Dr Mutonyi said there was a huge perception that it will be impossible to eliminate grand corruption, given that most of those accused of perpetrating the vice were still in office.

He said leaders in the current regime had been busy pointing fingers at corrupt practices of the previous (Moi) regime, yet those obstructing justice in the courts were still in government.

“This failure to hold public servants accountable is a result of patronage politics,” Dr Mutonyi said, his remarks coming hot on the heels of rising pressure on Education minister Sam Ongeri and his PS Karega Mutahi to quit following the alleged theft of Sh110 million meant for the widely acclaimed Free Primary Education Programme.

Politicians were largely on the receiving end of Dr Mutonyi’s address, with the anti-graft boss saying their knack for seeking refuge in ‘political and tribal cocoons’ complicated KACC’s work.

“The public is justified in being cynical about the promises we give to fight cormruption,” he said, and gave the example of how a Cabinet minister — who was a civil servant in the Kanu government — twisted evidence against him to subvert justice and forced the National Social Security Fund to purchase a piece of land acquired illegally.

“The officer made a Sh96 million profit on the piece of land without spending any money,” he said.

The land has now been gazetted, Sh96 million of pensioners’ funds lost, yet the culprit is now a minister serving the coalition Cabinet.