Uhuru must relentlessly pursue anti-corruption crusade

There is no question. Villains have been fraudulently and mercilessly milking taxpayers by engaging in corruption. The excitement Kenyans experience when they hear that action is finally being taken against those who have put self before country is understandable. The President’s action to put the corrupt on notice is therefore most welcome. It is important to note that the euphoria expressed by Kenyans is akin to the joy of beginning the journey to a promised land.

It is an expectant emotion that looks forward to arriving at a certain destination. We have in the past seen the anti-corruption engine being revved amid great fanfare only for the engine to idle uselessly for years before finally stalling and switching off.

The President, in his speech to both houses of Parliament, ignited the engines of the anti-corruption machine, we as Kenyans hope the gears will actually be engaged this time and the vehicle begin to move to its destination. We have not forgotten that former President Kibaki revved this very engine but failed to move the vehicle.

Kibaki made all the right noises against corruption before he was elected. We all remember anti-corruption czar John Githongo. In January 2003, he was appointed to the position of Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics by the incoming President Kibaki, who had been elected on an anti-corruption platform. He resigned from his position in February 2005 because he felt the government lacked commitment to ending corruption. We know when Githongo actually produced the goods and push came to shove, Kibaki backtracked. Githongo himself would later say he was left dangling in the wind. The harsh reality of fighting corruption is that because of its pervasiveness in this country, anyone who takes serious steps will suddenly find himself having to sacrifice many of those he considers friends and allies.

Kibaki simply did not have the stomach for it. We dare hope that the President is aware that the action he has taken if not taken to its logical conclusion of finding the lost money and jailing the culprits who stole it, will certainly return to bite him. There are two significant events that ought to take place once it is accepted that crime of this magnitude has taken place. First, there should be prompt restitution, and secondly there should be retribution. In this case, restitution will occur when the billions lost to graft are recovered and returned to the Treasury.

Where there is sufficient will, it is possible to trace repossess the wealth acquired by unjust enrichment. Retribution is the corrective action taken on those who purloined our national purse. It usually comes by way of an extended stay in a government facility such as King’ong’o prison.

The President’s stern words and directive that the corrupt step aside while exciting does not qualify as either restitution or retribution. It is in fact worth noting that any of those who will step aside will actually continue to earn their salaries. To give an analogy, suppose some brigands made away with all the cows in a village, and the villagers bitterly complained and demanded action from the police, the police arresting and questioning a some suspects would in itself neither cause the stolen animals to be returned to their rightful owners nor necessarily see the thieves serving long jail terms.

For either of those things to happen, leverage has to be applied to the suspects in such a manner as to reveal the location of the stolen livestock as well as secure their conviction in a court of law. What the president has done is no more than the police saying that they are holding and questioning a suspect. It is a step in the right direction, but is by no means mission accomplished. As to whether the president’s fine words will be followed by action of an equal caliber remains to be seen.