No need to accuse Uhuru if there's no enough evidence

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta when he attended Jubilee Party National Delegates Convention in Nairobi on  May 22, 2023. [Samson Wire, Standard]

Of the many accusations levelled against previous Jubilee government, the one I hoped the incoming administration would take on immediately was the Kemsa/Covid scandal.

Uhuru Kenyatta exited without any of his threats coming true. There was an obvious feeling that maybe some suspects had turned out to be too close to power. With a new government, I expected to see people in court, then in prison.

It was to be a small matter given they were no longer under the assumed protection of the previous regime. Obviously, that has not happened. However, the government must be commended for acting swiftly on the newer scandal involving malaria prevention nets.

Immediately thereafter, newer allegations emerged that Uhuru and a number of his ministers used their last few days in power to wipe the country’s coffers clean. The line pursued relentlessly by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua was that billions were ferried in cartons to Wilson Airport and flown to various homes using helicopters.

This is another serious allegation that should have been acted on immediately. To this day, nothing can be said to have been done. If it is true Kenyans lost huge chunks of money to greedy and shadowy figures, they should be exposed. Many Kenyans were looking forward to the State Capture Commission to bring all the cartels in previous government to light and eventually to justice.

Another accusation in the works for some time now, is that retired president Uhuru has been the Mr Money Bag behind the demonstrations witnessed over the past few days. While this has been thrown around in the political space, nothing has been said about it in the legal space. No evidence has been adduced so far.

However, the accusation has been pushed so hard that his mother and son have become accessories and suffered the consequences. According to Interior CS Kithure Kindiki, the government is searching for 23 firearms said to be in civilian hands and said to be in three homesteads, including Jomo’s home.

In that case, Kenyans would wish to see them, know whether they have been licensed, and where and when they have been used. There is an attempt to link the same to the spate of killings witnessed during the demonstrations.

In last week’s demonstrations, a number of armed civilians were caught on camera working side by side with uniformed police. However, most shooting accidents have been attributed to police, with some witnessed live. Is there a chance a civilian would infiltrate police operations unless sanctioned by state?

Let all these accusations of criminal action be processed through the legal justice system, otherwise they will not hold water and can simply be termed as political propaganda.

The writer is anchor at Radio Maisha