How to clean up the rot in counties

New governors have taken up office with exceptional zeal, with a number of them eager to clean up the rot apparently left behind by their predecessors.

Among the new measures the new county chiefs are promising is getting rid of 'corrupt' employees associated with their predecessors. Corruption and other vices are stains that have blotted the record of the first county governments, and any efforts to fight them are welcome.

However, the war on graft or misuse of resources must not degenerate into a political witch-hunt against those who did not supported the governors during the elections. News that some former staff of county governments have either been beaten up by rowdy mobs or threatened with violence simply because they took a stand contrary to the one of the new governors is uncivil and regrettable.

If the new leaders want to start their work on a clean slate, then they need to do it with diligence. Perhaps they need a comprehensive audit of the work-force and remunerations. They might need to go back to the many reports from the Controller of Budget and Auditor General, which indicted most of their predecessors of brazen graft; some poured millions towards the acquisition of wheelbarrows and hospital curtains.

Public servants found to have been complicit should be subjected to the full force of the law. If a county staff member and his or her boss used county cash to gain advantage over their competitors, that is an electoral offence and should not go unpunished.

But do not victimise staff merely because of their political preferences.