Prosecutions must now follow if we are to believe that President Kenyatta is serious
What you need to know:
- The President must show that what he is doing represents a credible long-term commitment to fighting corruption.
- If this whole saga does not end up with prosecutions and convictions in courts of law, he will find himself facing accusations of engaging in McCarthyism and witch-hunting.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has made a bold political statement. At the end of the day, the famous list has settled the question about where ultimate political authority rests.
Political alliances, especially in a context like ours, where power is shared and Cabinet appointments are made on the basis of patronage and loyalty to two leaders, will inevitably create two centres of power.
And where the State is made to operate as if it has two centres of power, you will have, perhaps unwittingly, created a perfect environment for freelance rent-seeking.
Cabinet ministers operating in such as an environment get to behave as if they are insulated from punishment when they are accused of corruption.
President Kenyatta has calculated that if he has to win the war on graft, he must cement personal power. He has sent the potent message that as he approaches the second part of his regime, he will not allow public officials to continue in the belief that they are insulated from punishment for involvement in corruption.
This graft list is the President’s response to the indiscipline and impunity that was creeping back into the public space mainly as a result of patronage appointments, unpunished corruption, and insider manipulation of tenders.
It is noteworthy that most of the ministers and principle secretaries on the graft list are cited for manipulation of tenders.
For instance, Energy minister Davis Chichir is accused of “working to ensure that corrupt deals in the energy sector were successfully executed”.
Specifically, the minister is mentioned in a deal which was to yield a fat kick-back amounting to $15 million and which he was to share with Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko.
Minister Michael Kamau is accused of involvement in “several tender award manipulations”, some of them involving companies and consultancies belonging to him.
FIRST SALVO
Without a doubt, the political reverberations of President Kenyatta’s action will be far-reaching. In the first place, it could inflame factionalism within the ruling coalition.
Indeed, the URP wing of the alliance has already sent the first salvo, with its MPs loudly grumbling that their side of the Cabinet was over-represented on the graft list.
As for me, I fully support the President because at the end of the day, leadership is about making decisions which, although politically unpopular, are in the long term in the interest of the country.
However, circumstances will force the President to apply a great deal of dexterity in his political footwork in order to manage the political ramifications.
Even more critical, the President must show that what he is doing represents a credible long-term commitment to fighting corruption. If this whole saga does not end up with prosecutions and convictions in courts of law, he will find himself facing accusations of engaging in McCarthyism and witch-hunting.
I say so because going through the list more closely, it all comes to a litany of unproven allegations. There are several cases that have been under investigation as far back as 2011.
The names of individuals who left the civil service years ago are also on the list. I hope that the investigations will offer answers and shed light on some of the high profile new corruption cases. The accent must be on the cases.
I would like to see more light shed on the recent upsurge in land-grabbing cases. I hope, for instance-, that new investigations will shed light on the characters behind the infamous Karen land scandal.
They should also lift the veil on the cartels behind the on-going controversy over the ownership of Caxton House on Kenyatta Avenue. We want to know the names of the individuals behind the Lang’ata Road Primary School saga.
The dragnet must be wide enough to investigate the power struggles within the EACC itself. Away from the limelight is an explosive dispute over the ownership of Integrity House, which houses the anti-corruption commission. When did this property cease to be public property and come to be owned by private individuals? We all know that when the proprietor of the building, Mr Alnoor Kassam, who now lives in Mexico, fled from the country, the building became public property through the Deposit Protection Fund. Under what circumstances did ownership change?
The EACC itself should also be put on the spot. We need to introduce checks to make sure that it is not used to serve political ends.
