Will Jubilee interventions to fight impunity pay off?

After weeks of recrimination over high levels of impunity, Kenya’s political leadership seems to have commenced a process of self-redemption.

Pope Francis’s visit to Kenya last week can also be viewed as contributing to that redemption, as the visit provided a much needed distraction from the daily problems that the country faces.

The Pope’s visit can give political cover the country’s intransigent political leadership, as it can provide a face-saving reason for Jubilee to climb down from its hardline positions.

The resignation of the Devolution Secretary, the powerful Anne Waiguru, following weeks of criticism from the media and the opposition, and fellow Jubilee politicians as well, can be a major turning point for Jubilee, since this can give the President the free hand he has so far lacked in taking action against corruption.

For whatever reason, Waiguru has, in the eyes of many people, appeared a favourite of the President who has spared her from the consequences that other cabinet secretaries had faced following corruption allegations in their ministries.

The President has even had to make an embarrassing public denial that there is a personal connection between him and Waiguru.

While Waiguru’s resignation was camouflaged in an explanation to do with poor health that has resulted from working too hard, and also the viciously negative publicity that she has been subjected to, few believe that explanation and many still regard her as a high profile casualty of the demands for action against corruption.

Her exit can strength the President’s hand in the fight against corruption as it signals an ability to make difficult decisions that has so far been lacking.

THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY

It appears also that the process of independent accountability against Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria is now under

ay, after the loquacious legislator was arraigned last week on charges related to utterances that he allegedly made several weeks ago to the effect that pangas have more uses than just cutting grass.

Kuria was then held in remand awaiting a determination of his bail application which the prosecution strongly opposed.

The prosecution pointed out that the MP was already out on bail for a similar charge and that he had allegedly flouted the bail terms for the previous charge.

Until now, Kuria, who also claims that he procured false evidence against Deputy President William Ruto in the case he faces before the International Criminal Court, has appeared covered in an indestructible shell that made his actions beyond the reach of law enforcement.

Under those circumstances, the chances of Kuria becoming the subject of spirited opposition to bail by the prosecution, have looked unlikely.

The fact that a situation has arisen where the MP — seen as a close confidante of the President after political pressure was applied to opponents, leading to his unopposed election in a by-election — was forced to spend a weekend in confinement, is a massive signal of prosecutorial and judicial independence that has seemed impossible under Jubilee.

The last significant development was the recent declaration by the President that corruption is now a national security threat.

Many people have known and said this long before the President did, and he cannot claim that this was an original idea.

What is original is that he has now made a new high-level acknowledgement that things are bad and something must be done about it.

His previous high-level declaration of a new fight against corruption, the one that formed part of his State of the Nation address in March, came to nothing, as there has been no tangible action against those that were accused of corruption.

GRAND CORRUPTION VS PETTY CORRUPTION
With the 2017 elections approaching and the state of impunity that has characterised Jubilee now shaping into a big campaign issue, the President needs action, which he hopes will result from these recent interventions.

The feel-good factor from the Pope’s visit will soon evaporate, as did the one from the recent visit by US President Barack Obama, and it will be politics as usual.

The Cabinet reshuffle will provide Jubilee with a limited benefit of doubt and will buy much-needed time during which a new demonstration of a commitment to fighting corruption can be provided.

However, the fact that the proposed appointments to cabinet includes a dodgy and uninspiring character from the past signals that it is really still business as usual.

The capacity of the political system to allow cases facing politically significant people, like Kuria, to go through the due process, can contribute to the appearance of a new resolve against impunity.

When he declared corruption a national security issue, the President outlined a number of additional steps that he proposes to take to address it.

Those steps are based on the typology of corruption that has come to be called petty corruption.

This is transactional corruption that officials, especially those in junior positions, engage in.

All that the President sets out to do, with those new measures, is to fight petty corruption, leaving grand corruption unaddressed.

While it is welcome to fight petty corruption, it is more useful, and also more difficult, to fight grand corruption, such as that implied by questions as to what happened to the proceeds of the Eurobond that Kenya floated last year.

While little has changed, another attempt to make improvements and to bring accountability against impunity, seems underway within Jubilee. Time will tell whether this one will succeed.