Looking back at the year when Jubilee’s mettle was put to test

The Jubilee administration will be looking back at 2015 as the year its mettle was put to the test. The government jumped from one crisis to another as its leadership capabilities came into question in dealing with runaway corruption, an economy gasping for breath, the existential threat of terrorism and other forms of insecurity.

As a result of the crises and the lacklustre manner the government dealt with them, the opposition that in the initial stages of the current administration was viewed as weak and ineffective has become more vocal, leaving Jubilee on the defensive.

“Jubilee rests its entire strategy on public relations. When its competence was tested, the entire government was badly exposed. No wonder it has spent an entire year defending one failure after another,” said Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar, who is also the Wiper Party Secretary-General.

In the end, the Jubilee administration is closing 2015 on a low — having spent the better part of the year on the defensive from all-out attacks from the opposition, civil society and the public. Some of the harshest criticism has come from social media where hashtags targeting the government are regularly crafted.

For Mr Omar, 2015 is not only a bad year for Jubilee but also signalled its weaknesses, with many Kenyans questioning its competence to deliver on the grand promises.

'WE HAVE A SCANDAL'

Former anti-corruption permanent secretary in the Narc regime John Githongo in November told the New York Times: “We don’t have a government. We have a scandal”.

Ipsos third quarter survey released on December 1 found that 67 per cent of Kenyans felt that the country is generally going south, up from 37 per cent in August. Only 22 per cent felt the country was on the right track. During the same period, confidence in President Kenyatta dipped to 35 per cent from 52 per cent in August.

That Jubilee has governed largely on the defensive in 2015, however, is strongly disputed by President Uhuru Kenyatta. Through his spokesman Manoah Esipisu, State House said the view was insincere.

“We expect criticism but going back to whether the President may have done something or not is an exercise in futility. On security, the question one should ask is, where were we at the start of the year and where are we now? No-one denies that there have been challenges but no-one in his right mind would think we have been on the defensive,” said Mr Esipisu.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery on Tuesday claimed that crime had declined by 20 per cent, disputing the survey findings by Ipsos that “the proportion of Kenyans that have been criminal victims has risen slightly to eight per cent”, up from five per cent. Ipsos polled 2,058 respondents in both rural and urban areas in 41 of the 47 counties through face-to-face interviews. The poll was conducted between November 7 and 19 and had a margin of error of +/-2.2 per cent.

“We know we have a fully functioning command and control centre. This has enabled police to use technology effectively. So far, we have witnessed a reduction in crime by more than 20 per cent,” said Mr Nkaissery.

LACK OF GRASP

This is also the year Kenya experienced the worst terror attack since the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi. In the early hours of April 2, 2015, Al-Shabaab gunmen stormed Garissa University College killing 148 people, the majority of them students. Seventy-nine others were injured.

The attack exposed the government’s security and communication problems and it was clear that lessons from the Westgate attack of September 2013 were never internalised. Failure by President Kenyatta to visit the university or the injured in hospital compounded Jubilee’s lack of grasp of the issues at hand.

Besides the Garissa University College attack, many more Kenyans lost their lives in similar terror raids in Mandera in July in which 14 quarry workers were killed.

But Mr Esipisu maintained the self-assessment report was the true reflection of the situation. “Statistics don’t lie. Clearly, we are on top of things. We are not perfect but we are on the right track.”

Despite the assertions by State House, 2015 has not been a particularly good year for the Jubilee Government. Save for a brief respite in July when visiting US President Barack Obama admonished the opposition for asking him to address the runaway corruption in government, the ruling coalition has largely been on the defensive.

In fact, the respite offered by President Obama was almost immediately squandered. In August, Auditor- General Edward Ouko revealed that government ministries could not support expenditures totalling Sh67 billion from the 2013/14 financial year.

The report saw Jubilee launch an attack on the office and person of the Auditor-General, whom they accused of working with Cord to discredit the government.

House Majority Leader Aden Duale led Jubilee MPs in the attack, accusing certain individuals of being behind revelations to portray public officers in bad light.

“We have noticed a trend of powerful brokers/vendors trying to use public officials to drive a corruption narrative against the government. The profiling is evident in what was witnessed in Parliament recently. At every point, the opposition, with their collaborators, fed the media with all manner of forged documents and cooked figures about the fight against corruption,” Mr Duale said.

NYS SAGA

No sooner had Mr Duale said that than a reported loss of Sh791 million at the NYS under the Devolution ministry imploded.

Initially, State House and Jubilee MPs vehemently denied that money had been lost, but they had to eat humble pie when investigations unearthed a corruption cartel that swindled Sh791 million. The corruption allegations at the National Youth Service (NYS) largely brought down then powerful Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, who resigned in November on “doctor’s advice.”

Several people have since been charged with the loss of Sh791 million from NYS. They are Josephine Kabura Irungu, Ben Gethi, Charity Gethi, Jedidah Wangui, John Kago Ndung’u, Sam Mwadime and Patrick Onyango.

Former Devolution Principal Secretary Peter Mangiti and NYS Director General Nelson Githinji have also been charged with interfering with investigation.

But Mr Esipisu accused the media of fanning the NYS corruption allegations. According to him, the media incessantly ran with the NYS story for five months, even after investigations had been completed and suspects charged in court.

“It is not right to say that the government has been on the backfoot in the fight against corruption. There has been a sustained assault on corruption led by the President despite some noises that we have heard. So many people have been charged in court. Those who have been charged are not in court because we are defensive but because the President personally has taken charge,” he said.

In the past two months, the government has been put to task over how Sh196 billion it raised from the Eurobond that was floated in the Irish bourse in 2014 was spent.

NO LIST

Despite promising that he would publish the list of projects undertaken with the Eurobond money, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich on Monday beat a hasty retreat, saying he does not have the list.

In essence, it has lent credence to opposition criticism that some of the billions went into people’s pockets and the government cannot fully account for the money, except Sh53 billion used to settle a syndicated loan.

Senate deputy minority leader Abdirahman Hassan said he was worried Jubilee would not achieve much by 2017.

“By the third year, the government ought to have found its footing and started delivering on its promises. All we are seeing are people who do not have an iota of an idea on why they are in government,” he said.

But Mr Esipisu said the criticism was unwarranted: “The government has delivered on many of its priorities. Of course, challenges remain but, overall the government is on top of things”.