Will Uhuru finally manage to end the ‘eating’ culture?

What you need to know:

  • Whether Uhuru will be able to disrupt the eating culture perfected through the ages — since 1963 — is the biggest question.
  • So far, he remains the most vocal president on the need to tackle corruption.
  • How deep he will want the investigators to cut, and whether he has any sacred cows, will determine whether the current war is all hat and no cattle.

Behind the scenes, President Uhuru Kenyatta has crafted a strong administrative State that will be the hallmark of his second term. He has also decided to take corruption head-on. But is this a smoke and mirrors scenario or is the President determined to cook the crooks, once and for all?

PATRONAGE

Some major administrative shifts, besides the elevation of Dr Fred Matiang’i, have been taking place — an indicator of how the new administrative structure is working.

The aim is to whittle down the political state, which was mainly relying on sleaze and patronage to stay afloat. At the political level, President Kenyatta appears to be running with no political lieutenants, but his strength is now in the administrative structure that he has put in place for the past two years, with new roles assigned to the regions and counties, which have been strengthened to reflect the new thinking.

As part of his legacy, the President seems to have decided to disrupt the culture of sleaze that had permeated the government, and he did this by setting up a multi-agency team (MAT) comprising seven key units. These are the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Financial Reporting Centre (FRC). Others are the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA), Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Office of the President (OP).

DEMONETISATION

It is this group that has become famous for the major arrests within the government and sent fear within the top echelons of the government. MAT is also credited with the creation of legislation — as well as administrative agencies — with a view to fighting corruption, money laundering and terrorism.

Part of these measures include the recent demonetisation of the Sh1,000 note, the introduction of guidelines on large cash transactions and establishment of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Division at the Nairobi High Court. The team also pushed for the creation of a centralised data platform, now known as Huduma Namba.

The journey towards the creation of an administrative state to help fight corruption started in earnest on or about March 26, 2015, when President Kenyatta tabled a confidential report on corruption cases under investigation by the EACC.

This was when he directed the Office of the Attorney-General and Department of Justice to undertake a thorough review of the framework in place for fighting corruption.

GOODWILL

Subsequently, through Gazette Notice No. 2118 of March 30, 2015, the Task Force on Review of the Legal, Policy and Institutional Framework for Fighting Corruption in Kenya was born.

One of the recommendations of the task force was collaboration among institutions and agencies to enhance the fight against corruption.

While this was perhaps not noticed immediately, the import is being felt with the steady crackdown on cartels in the top echelons of government and tenderpreneurs. Although there have been no convictions yet, collaboration among the agencies has been a big win.

Previously, the different agencies lacked capacity and political goodwill to carry out investigations and that is how big cases either collapsed or were simply sabotaged from the start. The political state was also accused of involvement in transnational crimes, gun running and even — at the mundane level — cattle rustling.

Set for discussion is the draft Proceeds of Crime and Anti Money Laundering (Criminal Assets Recovery Fund) (Administration) Regulations 2019, which sets out the objectives for recovering assets obtained through sleaze.

TRANSFERRED

The draft regulations further propose the establishment of a Criminal Assets Recovery Fund Committee, which will consist of the heads of some of the institutions mentioned before. The committee will be expected to manage the fund as well as assist in capacity building of law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.

Operations of the fund are proposed to be reviewed every 10 years, with balances transferred to the National Exchequer and other assets transferred to the ministry responsible for the fund if it is wound up.

It is hoped that these rules will deter Kenyans from engaging in corruption on a large scale.

Another move by President Kenyatta to combat money laundering and corruption was the release of new currency notes in May. The objective of the demonetisation was to deal with illicit financial flows, counterfeits and money laundering. Whether the objective was achieved will be known later.

EXTREMISM

The President also launched the National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism in September 2016, which is a community mobilisation measure to detect extremism. It is also supposed to create employment opportunities and promote technical skills through vocational and technical training.

Another measure that was undertaken by the government was the vetting of gun owners, and the establishment of the Kenya Coast Guard Service to protect Kenya’s territorial waters against maritime crimes such as piracy, illegal fishing, and human and drug trafficking.

At the international level, Kenya has been pushing to categorise Al-Shabaab as a terrorist group. In 2014, it proposed the inclusion of Al-Shabaab in the terrorist groups outlined in UNSC Resolution 1267 (also known as 1267 sanctions regime and adopted in 1999).

SANCTIONS

Those opposing the application of the sanctions to Al-Shabaab argue that humanitarian groups operating in Somalia would no longer benefit from an exemption that keeps their work in compliance with existing sanctions.

While these are some of the issues that have kept President Kenyatta busy, he has also pegged his legacy on the Big Four Agenda. But most of these things have been drowned by the ongoing political divisions as the Kenyatta succession takes centre stage.

Whether this is the reason the President chose to work with the administrative structure is not clear, but during his first term, elected politicians held sway over him and downplayed the roles played by provincial administrators and Cabinet technocrats. In his second term, the tables appear to have been turned, with power now vested on these administrators.

AMENDMENTS

The President’s rapport with Mr Raila Odinga has also seen the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) come up with a report that could help seal some of the loopholes within the 2010 Constitution. At the moment, the report has been accepted across the political divide and its fate now rests with the State.

Part of the thinking within the BBI was to seek a formula for ending divisive politics by modifying the structure of government. While insiders accept that this is a Herculean task, President Kenyatta has over the past 12 months been slowly changing the bowels of the nation state and bringing in disciplined forces and intelligence officers to man key national institutions.

The BBI report has suggested the creation of the position of a prime minister — a move that could lead to either constitutional amendments or changes within the legal structure.

But it has not been lost on observers that the BBI will strengthen the administrative state, as envisioned, and perhaps set up governance structures that will solidify the current Constitution.

SACRED COWS

Whether Uhuru will be able to disrupt the eating culture perfected through the ages — since 1963 — is the biggest question. So far, he remains the most vocal president on the need to tackle corruption.

How deep he will want the investigators to cut, and whether he has any sacred cows, will determine whether the current war is all hat and no cattle.