It would be defeatist to deny agencies political goodwill in war on graft

Of the many things said at this week’s Africog “State Capture” forum, the assertion by John Githongo on the state of Kenya’s anti-corruption architecture was poignant. Kenya’s first governance PS’s averment that Kenya had the most reformed legal and institutional anti-corruption frameworks in Africa and that we had reached the end of reforms for anti-corruption was on point.

Kenya’s reform journey started in the mid-nineties, when the World Bank and other international partners, who had lost hope in the ability of mainline government to fight corruption funded the Mwau led Anti-Corruption agency. Until then, the Chief anti-corruption prosecutor was the Attorney General, a member of Cabinet, yet everyone knew that the chief purveyors and benefactors of grand corruption were senior government officials including Cabinet Ministers. No one really expected any significant prosecution for grand sleaze.