Is Uhuru’s political will to end corruption enough?

Ken Opalo

The President has recently shown signs that he is willing to fight corruption in his administration. And to signal that he has political will to do the same, he suspended high ranking public officials, including suspects in the Deputy President’s office. The list of shame presented in Parliament showed that the President is willing to spend some political capital to rid the government of corrupt officials. But will he succeed? Should the President have adopted a subtler approach?

Most of the time the discussion hinges on whether or not our leaders have the political will to eradicate the vice. Most Kenyans react with demands that guilty parties be sacked and prosecuted, then jailed. But when corruption is as endemic as it is in Kenya, the solution to the vice gets complicated than that. Our reality is that an unalloyed prosecution of corruption would most likely lead to the collapse of the entire government. Nearly every government official, including at the very top, has been adversely mentioned over corruption.