After Ringera, focus now on Wako

Attorney General Amos Wako (left) and former Kenya Anti Corruption Commission boss Justice Aaron Ringera (right). Photo/Gideon Maundu.

Days after besieged Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission Director Justice Aaron Ringera resigned, the focus may be shifting to Kenya’s longest-serving Attorney-General Amos Wako, with some MPs and the Law Society of Kenya demanding his removal.

Mr Wako has been in office for the last 18 years, and has served two presidents —Daniel arap Moi and now Mwai Kibaki. His record in terms of prosecuting so-called big fish has been repeatedly questioned in and outside Parliament.

But on Saturday, Mr Wako stood his ground saying he had performed well. “I have done my level best and even God knows I have done what is right according to the law. I don’t care what people have to say but it is up to Kenyans to judge and say what they believe,” he said.

The AG refuted claims that efforts by the KACC to prosecute prominent persons in the government had been frustrated by his office. “If you say the big fishes have not been prosecuted, is the former Kenya Re Managing Director Johnson Jackson Githaka not a big fish? Is the former Roads and Public Works PS Erastus Mwongera not a big fish? We need to look at what has been done before we make some allegation because the truth is that no one has been exempted in this fight,” he said.

Police killings

The UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, Prof Philip Alston, in his report this year recommended the exit of Mr Wako for inaction over police killings. The United States later joined the fray demanding the removal of senior officials to pave way for reforms.

Two of those specifically singled out for removal – Mr Ringera and the then Police Commissioner Maj-Gen Hussein Ali – have since been shoved aside. The others pinpointed for ouster from office are Mr Wako and Chief Justice Evan Gicheru.

Failure to remove the senior officials, the US administration had warned, would attract a broad range of sanctions against some Kenyan leaders, including lifetime travel bans and asset freezes. The US has since issued letters to 15 Kenyan leaders, threatening to issue travel bans against them if they don’t support reforms.

With such pressure from within and without, LSK vice-chairman James Mwamu says it is time Mr Wako resigned to give way for fresh blood. When he resigned on Wednesday, Mr Ringera defended his performance and seemed to blame Mr Wako for failing to take action against more than 300 files forwarded to him for prosecution.

Mr Ringera, who had served one five-year term, resigned after he came under intense pressure immediately President Kibaki re-appointed him. “I believe Ringera had a point. The AG should look at those files and prosecute. There is a lot to be done. But he has not scored very well on prosecuting corruption cases. He argues that he serves the government of the day. That is very telling. It could mean not doing anything that would annoy the government of the day,” Mr Mwamu told the Sunday Nation.

The LSK accused Mr Wako of giving excuses that he had no sufficient evidence to prosecute cases. And MPs Jakoyo Midiwo (co-chief whip), Danson Mungatana (Garsen), Boni Khalwale (Ikolomani), Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa) as well as former MPs Paul Muite and Justin Muturi said Mr Wako has been a major stumbling block in fighting corruption as well as implementing institutional reforms.

They now want the office of the AG to have a term limit. However, Mr Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu) argued that although Mr Wako’s performance was wanting, his removal would not guarantee effective prosecution of high-profile personalities. Whenever pressure for his removal mounts, Mr Wako, who mostly shuns the media, pleads innocence claiming he does the best he can.

Now that calls for the AG’s resignation have returned with Mr Ringera’s exit, Mr Midiwo wants Mr Wako to read the signs and bow out. Next, in line, said Mr Midiwo, should be Mr Justice Gicheru. “The AG has performed very dismally ... Wako has to go,” Mr Midiwo told the Sunday Nation on the telephone from Arusha.

“I don’t see us going anywhere as a country with Wako and Gicheru there,” he said. Contrary to Mr Midiwo’s views, Mr Justice Gicheru has repeatedly described himself as a reformist. Mr Midiwo accused Mr Wako of precipitating a constitutional crisis in Kenya.

For instance, Mr Midiwo said, in 2004, Mr Wako took over the controversial constitutional review. It was the Wako Draft that was subjected to the 2005 referendum in which the government lost. “At Bomas, we prepared a document and handed it over to Wako. But he went and produced another document which contravened the wishes of the people … We cannot reform as a country as long as Mr Wako is there,” Mr Midiwo said.

Public interest

Mr Mungatana said it was sad that in the nearly two decades Mr Wako had been in office, he has not been attending courts to personally prosecute cases in public interest. “He has overstayed in that office ... His longevity has made him too comfortable. The AG has become synonymous with Amos Wako. If you talk of AG, you talk of Amos Wako. He has not re-invented himself. He is the same person he was 20 years ago.”

Mr Mungatana said there was a need for change of guard at the AG’s chambers. “An AG should go with the government he has been advising. If he has been advising the President and that president loses, the AG should also go. But staying on with the winning President, hii haiwezekani (it is not advisable),” he told the Sunday Nation on the sidelines of a political parties workshop at a Nairobi hotel on Friday.

Dr Khalwale said it was time for Mr Wako to leave office and pave the way for reforms. “We should remove Wako so the next AG can start on a clean slate,” he said on the telephone. However, Dr Khalwale said there was a need for institutional reforms which would see the Justice and Constitutional Affairs ministry abolished.

But Mr Muite asked Kenyans not to let Mr Wako be a scapegoat, arguing that the “bigger problem” was with the appointing authority. “Amos Wako is unfairly targeted. Kenyans should target where corruption emanates ... Wako does not keep himself in office. He was there to protect Moi’s interests and is now protecting Kibaki interests,” said Mr Muite on the telephone.

Mr Muite, a senior counsel, said Mr Wako was in the same predicament as Mr Ringera because both knew where the buck stops. On his part, Mr Muturi accused Mr Wako of giving excuses that he could not prosecute cases for lack of sufficient evidence. He challenged him to tell the public what files presented to him by Mr Ringera lacked credible evidence.

Mr Muturi, a former magistrate, said Mr Wako was never serious in prosecuting high-profile cases. The former Siakago MP said Mr Wako had been “the biggest stumbling block in prosecution of cases”. Mr Kioni said Mr Wako should “step aside” for allegedly lacking the passion to fight corruption.

“Wako stands accused. He has not shown any passion to prosecute. He is always looking for evidence beyond reasonable doubt. He mingles with MPs and the Executive. This has really compromised him. He wants to be popular. The office of the AG and that of the KACC director is not for somebody who wants to be popular,” Mr Kioni said.

But Mr Rutto said there was a bigger problem affecting the country than Mr Wako. He said the problem of poor prosecution cuts across the AG’s office, Judiciary and the police. “I do not want to judge the individual but an institution. AG’s office is least modernised. It is understaffed. Wako requires funding.

It is not just the AG’s office. The Judiciary is in a worse state. It is completely disorganised. It has no value. There is a much bigger problem among the police,” he said. “The real problem is not just Amos Wako but the entire institution, which needs rejuvenation. It is the Executive, and Parliament to blame. In the run-up to the elections in the last Parliament, Mr Muite recommended minimum reforms. But Parliament did not act.”

Deputy Public Prosecutor Keriako Tobiko, under whose docket prosecution squarely falls, has on occasion complained of a high turnover of State prosecutors due to poor pay. In defending himself, Mr Ringera urged Parliament to give the KACC authority to take to court corruption cases so the next anti-graft czar would have powers and be seen to perform.