War on graft must be real and sustained

Early this year, when President Uhuru Kenyatta presented to the National Assembly a list of individuals suspected of corruption with the hope that MPs would take over from there, Kenya was thrown into instant excitement.

Many people believed the Executive had finally taken the bold step to fight corruption and set the economy free to realise its full potential. The rousing acclaim the President got from both sides of the House on that occasion was a strong pointer that Kenyans are united against corruption in high places.

But no sooner had the countdown on the 60-day period given to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to complete investigations began, than Parliament initiated its own moves that would throw everything into disarray.

First, MPs ganged up to defend “their own” who appeared on the President’s list. Then they voted to send EACC commissioners home. And in quick succession, they voted to disband the EACC Secretariat home, leaving only the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to handle the matters from end-to-end.

Since the DPP can only handle the prosecutorial side, the absence of EACC commissioners and the Secretariat who do the investigative work meant there was not much that could be done, and until new officials are appointed to fill vacant positions at the EACC, all cases not submitted to the DPP and those that needed additional investigation would be put on hold.

Clearly, this is not the way to conduct investigations because it creates room for vital documents and evidence to disappear. Once the fight on corruption had began, the logical thing to have been done was to step up the pace. Now, the Auditor General has released a damning report detailing massive misuse of public funds at the national and county governments.

While this should have made everybody pause and reflect, some legislators who have arrogated themselves the task of defending the government even when there is no reason to do so, have already taken to the media to rubbish the report. What are their interests considering that they don’t have the benefit of facts that the Auditor General relied on to compile the report?

It is ridiculous for a legislator to claim the Auditor General is engaging in a public relations exercise when there is evidence of government systems not delivering; pouring cold water on the Auditor General’s report could be one of the calculated moves to defeat efforts geared towards taming the war on graft. Having hosted a successful Global Entrepreneur Summit is not reason enough for us to bury our heads in the sand, pretending all is well.

From the Auditor General’s report, it also emerges that corruption has also been devolved to the counties where several Governors have been unable to adequately account for the money disbursed in the 2013/2014 financial year. Rivalry between Governors and Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) over the administration of funds did not only lead to threats of impeachment against the county bosses, it also prepared ground for impropriety.

Procurement of goods and services, in which laid down procedures are not followed in many of the counties has fuelled abuse, misuse and misappropriation of funds. Through hastily registered companies to cash in on tenders, the element of conflict of interest cannot be discounted. In some counties it was discovered that some suppliers were not even on the tendering pre-qualification lists. In both quantitative and qualitative terms, goods supplied were found not worthy the amount of money paid.

On the other hand, there has been no equity in appointments to county jobs. There are qualified Kenyans who missed out on jobs they merited because some governors and MCAs irregularly gave these jobs to relatives, cronies and those in their political camps.

This forms part of the myriad issues that must be addressed urgently to enhance accountability, streamline services and ensure rules are adhered to. As things stand now, we cannot afford a business-as-usual attitude in the counties. Left unchecked, corruption will surely kill the Kenyan dream.