President Uhuru keen to slay graft dragon

The President has received a lot of flak on how he has handled corruption, yet he has done everything within his power to deal with corruption.

Corruption is a vice that must be stopped. It is a serious threat to national security. Unscrupulous leaders continue to line their pockets with public funds that could be used to equip hospitals, train and equip our security agencies; provide essential social services like water and sanitation and provide better education for our children.

Kenyans are therefore right to demand tangible action from the State in dealing with corruption. We can no longer afford the kind of sleaze seen in public offices. Taxpayers’ money must be handled with utmost care.

The corrupt must be dealt with firmly without regard to their station in life or rank in government. The Jubilee government has demonstrated it means business as far as dealing with corruption is concerned.

No administration in Kenya has done more in the war against corruption than Jubilee. For example, President Kenyatta fired a third of his Cabinet on allegations of corruption, an exercise he called “a painful but necessary decision”.

As a result, there has been more robust national debate on corruption, a renewed scrutiny of public officers and strengthened institutional tools in the fight against corruption.

To complement investigation and prosecution, the Government has invested in preventive measures, tracking, seizing and confiscating the proceeds of corruption.

We have seen assets frozen, proceeds of crimes recovered and banking rules tightened to ensure that the corrupt find it extremely difficult to transact in corruptly obtained money.

There are several other measures that the Government has put in place to deal with corruption. A multi-agency task force is in place bringing together agencies responsible for investigation and prosecution.

The sharing of information between these agencies is now more efficient, and operational aspects of investigations and prosecution are now being completed without undue delays.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has not been left behind. In the last year alone, 90 special prosecutors have been trained to try corruption cases. The Financial Reporting Centre and the Asset Recovery Agency are now operational.

As a result, the Government has traced, and is now preparing for seizure, property and assets worth 1.6 billion shillings acquired using proceeds of corruption.

However, this is not enough if other arms of government do not do their jobs properly and expeditiously. In another first for Kenya, there are more than 367 corruption cases before the courts; most of them involving senior public officials.

However, and ironically, the Judiciary has become the greatest stumbling block in proceeding with this war. Courts have issued one order after another in favour of those suspected to have engaged in corrupt practices.

There are cases that have stayed in courts for so long that the public even forgot about them.

An example is Anglo-leasing; or the case of former Foreign Affairs PS Thuita Mwangi who was acquitted last week. The fight against corruption requires an all-inclusive, multi-sectoral approach to be won.

No single office can achieve success on its own. The Presidency may have the will to deal with corruption as has been demonstrated, but if the investigations and prosecutions are not at par, we cannot go far.

Most importantly, citizens must remain vigilant and keep piling pressure on public officials to be accountable with our taxes.