Uhuru pulls out all the stops in unprecedented war on graft

President Kenyatta has been on the warpath since his inauguration for the second and final term in office last November.

During the Madaraka Day celebrations in Meru, where he called for the vetting of accounts and procurement officers in the public service and the arrest of individuals in the Sh9 billion National Youth Service, the war on corruption, it would appear, is receiving something akin to national renewal.

On Thursday, the President went a notch higher. He announced the government will conduct a lifestyle audit of all public officers, starting with himself and his deputy, William Ruto.

“Everyone in the public service will have to explain the source of their wealth and all those found to have plundered public coffers will be put to task to explain the source of their wealth.”
“Those found culpable will be taken to where they belong - prison," the President declared.

Transparency International-Kenya Executive Director Samuel Kimeu while supporting the gesture says auditing the lifestyle of the President and his deputy falls within the realism of political leadership the two should provide.

POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

“There is no magic in the question of auditing the President or his deputy. It is a question of political leadership. If President Kenyatta wants to be audited I can assure you he will be audited. If he doesn’t, again he will not be audited,” he explains.

In fact, he argues that he should offer himself for audit and if there is a mismatch between his income and expenditure, he should be held liable.

READ: All Public officers to undergo lifestyle audit: Uhuru

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Mr Kimeu argues the lifestyle audit is underpinned by the philosophy that people are not be ashamed of their wealth if they obtained it legitimately. Similarly, nobody owns assets they cannot explain how they acquired them.

For the audit to succeed, Mr Kimeu wants the president to take the lead in changing the legal regime to give the State the power to confiscate what public officers own but cannot explain how they acquired; change the law to ensure that wealth declaration forms are made public and digitised so that the public can access them.

NOTHING STRANGE

“Many years after the law was enacted, wealth declarations forms remain manual and confidential. Under this arrangement, the public cannot analyse and make a finding,” he explained.
He also proposed that the wealth declarations forms should go beyond civil servants.

Mr Ndungú Wainaina of the International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC) argues there is nothing strange about it as it a constitutional requirement in which Chapter Six of the Constitution was purposefully entrenched to enforce lifestyle audits, integrity and ethics in public service.

“Lifestyle audit of public officials ensures the respective office holder’s lifestyle and wealth is commensurate with their level of income. If it is manifest the level of wealth of income and assets base are inconsistent, it must be incumbent upon the official to give an account of source of wealth to justify their lifestyle,” he explains.

Whereas Mr Wainaina says the audit requires a forensic and intelligence approach that brings together many institutions and agencies, Mr Kimeu says the employers of the State and public officers can do the job.

MULTI AGENCY TEAM

Mr Wainaina says the multi agency team must be allowed to access information of all of all public officers and their immediate families.

On Saturday, Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua tendered his support, saying the initiative will “rescue” Kenya.

Dr Mutua says he was shocked by results of a lifestyle audit done on officials of his county government, when it was discovered that people earning fairly low salaries had huge investments they could not explain.

“You find that somebody earns a salary of Sh50,000 yet they have three matatus in town and an apartment block. Where are they getting the money from if it not from the county or bribes? They cannot show a loan or how they got the money,” said Dr Mutua in an interview with the Sunday Nation.

Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen joked on Twitter that the move would “expose” politicians who project a façade of wealth because voters hate poor leaders.

Senate Deputy Speaker Kithure Kindiki and Devolution CS Eugene Wamalwa on Saturday supported President Kenyatta’s move to have a lifestyle audit conducted on all public officers.

PUBLIC OFFICERS
Prof Kindiki said those public officers who would not accept to be audited should be arrested.

The CS Wamalwa challenged the county governments to step up efforts in fighting corruption related incidents.

“Our country has stagnated for long in implementing development projects because some people have misused money meant for development projects,” the CS said.

Stories by Ibrahim Oruko, Flora Koech and Elvis Ondieki