Furious Uhuru orders new graft probe

A furious President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered a new round of vetting of senior officials in the Executive arm of government in the wake of runaway corruption.

It is quietly being undertaken by a multi-agency team single-handedly crafted by the Head of State, with members of the team mostly having an investigative background and with the National Intelligence Service (NIS) playing the central role.

Deputy Head of Public Service Wanyama Musiambo, whom the President has tasked with leading the war on corruption, sits in the committee.

ABETTING THEFT

A departure from the kind of vetting they were subjected to, mostly by Parliament, before being appointed to office, the officials are not participants in the process this time around.

Only their files on track record and dealings are being collated for the President’s consumption. He will then decide on what to do.

The brief, we gathered, is to provide him with as much information as possible on the individual dealings of senior government bureaucrats at a time many have been accused of abetting theft of public money.

The move has been triggered by the latest reports of possible loss of Sh9 billion at the National Youth Service and others in the National Cereals and Produce Board as those charged with safeguarding public coffers turn into wanton looters and plunderers.

SH59 MILLION

Ms Anne Wanjiku Ngirita, an air supplier to the NYS, has become the face of the scandal which has already seen Youth PS Lilian Mbogo and the Service’s Director-General Richard Ndubai step aside. She pocketed Sh59 million in unscrupulous fashion. She has never tendered to supply goods and services to the government and does not have an office either.

“I don’t know what I supplied but I was shown the vouchers at the DCI (The Directorate of Criminal Investigation),” she said in a statement to investigators.

Mr Kenyatta has told his handlers that he will not entertain anything else that will jeopardise his Big Four Agenda — namely manufacturing, universal health coverage, housing and expanded food production. And they say he sees the bad press his government has received in the last couple of days in this light.

Yesterday, State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu avoided the subject, which has already caused panic among the President’s men, as it emerged that some two parastatal heads may be shown the door this week.

PORTFOLIO BALANCE

To demonstrate his frustration, Mr Kenyatta recently interjected a presentation by Attorney General Kihara Kariuki on corruption at a meeting with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) at State House. He owned up that his own house, the presidency, was suffocating under the menacing weight of the scourge.

The President, we established, is keen to install into office only people who will help him fight corruption when replacing those he shall have sacked.

“Even portfolio balance that has silently characterised public appointments since they came into office with his DP will have no place in this,” a source said.

A dispatch from State House when PS Mbogo and Mr Ndubai stepped aside was the closest Mr Kenyatta came to pronouncing himself on the matter, at the same time dropping hints on what he expects to happen.

“Investigative agencies have over the past few weeks been investigating payments at the NYS, with a clear intention of ascertaining whether they were made following the correct procedures; whether they were made for services delivered; and whether there was any fraud committed in the processes.

CORRUPT OFFICERS

“The President also expects any public official directly implicated in the investigations to uphold the code of integrity and ethics to which they are committed and to act accordingly. The President has every confidence in the work of the investigative agencies, and in the event any wrongdoing is established, he has directed that swift prosecution should follow,” it read.

In the oath of office citations, a personal pledge to fight graft was recently introduced for appointees like AG Kariuki and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Noordin Haji, a demonstration of Mr Kenyatta’s new push to rid the government of corrupt officers.

In the past 10 days alone, the country has been treated to damning revelations of theft in high places — in more than three ministries. And with this, Mr Kenyatta is said to be gravely concerned that his legacy may be irreparably damaged.

A highly placed source in the Office of the President familiar with the development told the Sunday Nation that the exercise, which started last week, is expected to continue through to early June, given the sheer number of officials whom the President wants information about.

GRAFT-RIDDEN

“You must have noted that he (Mr Kenyatta) has yet to comment about these cases of stealing public funds since the reports started coming out. He is working on a plan. The endgame will be undesirable to those involved,” the source said.

Those within the scope of the vetting are a section of Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and selected parastatal heads, with those heading scandal-hit dockets prominently featuring in the list.

It is widely believed that at the end of the exercise, Mr Kenyatta is keen to reorganise the Executive with a view to not only correcting the public perception of a graft-ridden regime that is getting entrenched by the day, but also use it to send a signal that he has no time for the corrupt.

Only a few trusted individuals around him are aware of the push which he hopes to use to rid his government of corrupt officers. The few in the know are already in panic mode since they do not know how wide the President is casting the net.

TENDER MONEY

Already, there is an individual or two at State House who do not know their fate. Having joined Mr Kenyatta after 2013 polls, they may have survived when Mr Kenyatta constituted his second government but their proximity to power has diminished over time. The coming in of the no-nonsense Comptroller Kinuthia Mbugua has also not helped matters for them.

While some officials are accused of looking the other away when the theft happens, others face the charge of actively participating in the looting in what has seen a number of government functionaries become overnight millionaires, with most of the money made from tenders.

But it remains to be seen how far the President is willing to go in this campaign, especially should the verdict show that some of his close lieutenants, or those of his Deputy William Ruto, have their hands in the till.

PUBLIC PLUNDER

Another highly placed source said Mr Kenyatta, doing his second and final term in office, is keen to stamp his authority before the lame duck syndrome sets in. Already, more than a dozen politicians, including Mr Ruto, are lining up to succeed him, with the clamour expected to get more acrimonious towards the 2022 polls. Given this reality, his associates say he believes the only time to get things done is within the first three years in office.

As a sign of things to come, DP Ruto on Friday promised action on various cases of public plunder. “We must shoulder the responsibility of public office by being good stewards of resources and ensuring value for money.

The EACC, DCI and ODPP will investigate and prosecute all those who will be found to have misappropriated public funds,” Mr Ruto said.