How Al Shabaab disrupted process of clearing names

Al Shabaab, the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the attack on Garissa University College last week, disrupted the defences of public officials falsely and unfairly accused of corruption.

Since President Uhuru Kenyatta gave his second State of the Nation address to Parliament a fortnight ago, in which he asked 175 senior public officials to defend themselves against corruption allegations, there have been numerous schemes to frustrate the efforts of honest people to clear their names.

Vile and odious allegations of corruption that would have been dispelled within the 60 days the President gave might have to take longer to retire as the country mourns its dead, reorganises its security and becomes more vigilant in the face of terrorist threats.

Besides the unknown cost in lives inflicted on Kenya in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, that tragedy has rudely interrupted the country’s biggest operation to restore integrity and confidence in public officials.

Nearly one in every three Cabinet secretaries saddled with false corruption allegations has been forced to take leave of absence to prepare an appropriate defence. The claims against Cabinet secretaries range from helping friends to make some money, being gifted a few million shillings as thanks for doing their jobs extremely well, to growing vegetables and tubers on no-man’s land.

OFFICIAL SANCTION

Some of the spurious claims about alleged land-grabbing and inflation of land prices appear to have received official sanction from the highest levels of government and therefore warranting no further inquiry.

Others deigning to question sensitive security expenditures, demanding to know how many bullets were bought and fired, how many sandbags went to Somalia and so on; or demanding receipts for snitch money, deserve the ignominy of silent response.

So far, one senator and the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee have asked to be excused from work in order that their innocence may become apparent in the face of claims of demanding or receiving perks in the course of their jobs.

Only last week, governors and other elected leaders unanimously declared their innocence against all allegations of corruption and declined to absent themselves from office when it became clear that the entire corruption bogey had been crafted by the opposition to break up the ruling coalition in order to access power through the back door.

It would not be a stretch of the imagination to think that the self-same opposition, keen to keep painting the government as corrupt, conspired with the terrorists to disrupt the clearance of innocent people in government so that a dark stench would always hang around their names.

These dark rumours have been so disturbing that they had forced a fierce unity within the ruling coalition, a natural closing of ranks especially after it was claimed that the Deputy President’s right-hand woman was paying people to stab the President’s left-hand woman in the back. The gravity of this allegation was made the more serious by the fact that President is left-handed.

The innocence of political leaders — especially governors and MPs — emerged forcefully when it became clear that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s graft list was a little different from the one the President had presented.

The Commission itself has been struggling to prove its innocence in the compilation of the list even as its officials reportedly turn down offers of alternative jobs in exchange for their resignations.

As Kenya is united in grief, counting its losses from Garissa, the clock continues to tick for innocent public officials who have been forced to leave their posts for another 50 days.

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