President not entirely powerless on corruption

This past week, the President hosted a meeting at State House to discuss governance. These summits seem to be the latest fad in the government’s strategy to engage the people and, more often than not, to showcase what officials consider to be their successes.

The summits are a great idea to galvanise the nation’s attention on important matters directly affecting common citizens, although one could argue that poor execution is reducing them to mere talk-shops after which it is business as usual.

Not surprisingly, the latest summit on governance will be remembered mainly for the President’s unscripted rant on his frustration regarding corruption in Kenya.

He lashed out at various individuals and offices, accusing them of erecting barriers in the path of his anti-corruption efforts and then blaming him for apparent inaction.

He even suggested that the Auditor-General and other independent offices were engaged in a political game and using corruption only to tarnish his administration’s image.

Anybody watching the speech could not help but come away with the feeling that the President had reached the end of his rope as far as corruption is concerned.

He was throwing up his arms and asking the citizens what else they expected him to do. His role in this matter, as he expressed it, is to provide resources for the various agencies and offices involved in tackling corruption. He insisted that he had provided all the resources that had been demanded of him, and yet corruption continues to thrive.

He argued that he has absolutely no role in providing oversight over the independent offices created by the constitution, such as the judiciary, the anti-corruption agencies, and the public prosecutor, among others. He sought to place the blame squarely on the holders of those offices.

POWERFUL PRESIDENCY

The truth of the matter is that the presidency under the Jubilee administration is extremely powerful. While the constitution sought to redistribute power among many offices, it placed lots of oversight authority in the legislature.

As a matter of fact, whoever controls Parliament can rule almost as an absolute monarch. Today, it is difficult for anyone to argue convincingly that the Jubilee presidency that was installed on the strength of the “tyranny of numbers” narrative has no control over Parliament.

Our legislature has distinguished itself in carrying out the agenda of the Executive, sometimes even pushing constitutional boundaries in their quest to fulfill party demands.

Indeed, it is often only the courts that have stood between this Executive-Legislature collusion when it threatens the very people that hold up the entire edifice.

If the President sincerely believes that certain office-holders are obstacles in the war on corruption, he has sufficient constitutional tools at his disposal to deal with them. Using his parliamentary strength, the President is able to force these individuals out of office and get them prosecuted and jailed for their crimes.

One cannot blame the Judiciary when it only sits as an arbiter between the Executive and the people. Simple logic demands that corruption allegations are properly investigated, sufficient evidence presented in court and the case effectively prosecuted in order to secure a conviction.

If this is done and the Judiciary remains lethargic in making a decision, then we can expose them for their incompetence. The truth is that we are not doing so, and the buck still stops at the leadership of the Executive.

As we have argued before, the anti-corruption crusade remains a farce simply because we view the “war” to only involve the issuing of eloquent public proclamations and doing little else. We even created a specialised agency to investigate corruption. And now when our friends steal from the public, we turn around and ask what the EACC is doing about it!

What hypocrisy!

Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, School of Medicine, Moi University; [email protected]