Reckless politicking risks derailing ongoing war on corruption, stop it

Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri at the weekend claimed the fight against corruption was being waged by people who want to block DP William Ruto’s 2022 bid. [Harun Wathari, Standard]

Bellicose statements from Rift Valley politicians have once again stirred up anxiety across the country. It would be easy to dismiss them as rhetorical chaff, thrown up to distract the war on corruption. But it is more than that.

Oscar Sudi, the Kapseret MP and Bahati MP Kimani Ngunjiri at the weekend claimed the fight against corruption was being waged by shadowy forces keen to block Deputy President William Ruto from succeeding President Uhuru Kenyatta when his term ends in 2022.

The MPs were agitated that the recent wave of high profile arrests in connection with corruption either by design or default, targeted allies of Dr Ruto. Not detectives themselves, it is not clear what other perception is feeding their narrative.

Last week, media was awash with yet more exposes of multi-billion scandals in the Jubilee administration. These touched on the construction of Kimwarer and Arror dams both in the Rift Valley. To this end, the DCI has interrogated officials of companies that did business with the main contractor CMC di Ravenna which filed for bankruptcy in December 2018 even after receiving part of the project cash (Sh7 billion according to the National Treasury) known as mobilization funds in financial parlance. It should worry Kenyans that the firm went down with so much of their money.

Yet worst of all, this is following the usual script; politicians keen to muddy the waters have joined in the scrum in the hope that in the ensuing melee, the culprits will “live to eat another day.” That should not be allowed. Time and again, the Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation head George Kinoti have assured us that they will be led by facts and evidence in nailing those who have stolen from Kenyans.  We expect nothing else from them.

It falls on them to find whether money has been lost, and by who. How do we go about recovering what has been lost and protecting what we have? And most importantly, how do we punish those who stole from the public to deter others in future?

But as is their nature, politicians love to ratchet up tensions to make political mileage. The proliferation of virulent ethnic sentiment and even threats of violence is frightening.

The political class has made it look like they have no stake in the country: they seem not to appreciate the cost of the corruption on the society; that it denies at least 250,000 youth a livelihood by making the cost of doing business unnecessarily high and thereby putting off investors; they also don’t seem to realise that the business of keeping the peace is theirs also.

 

Oftentimes, rather than sell their ideologies, leaders, and not just any leader, but those at the very top on either side of the political divide find satisfaction in scoring off each other. These personality attacks and political rhetoric have a way of grating on loyalist followers with disastrous results. It should be stopped.