Act on Sh376 billion graft scams now or face protests, President Uhuru Kenyatta told

The endemic level of corruption in Kenya can only be stopped when President Uhuru Kenyatta puts his threats into action, the civil society and opposition have warned.

Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga and a cross section of leaders yesterday challenged the President to crack the whip, saying corruption has become a shameless free for all scramble in the country.

“Kenyans are breathing the air of corruption left, right and centre and he should act now or nothing will be left,” said Raila in Yimbo, Siaya County at the burial of the late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s speechwriter Odinge Odera. (see separate story)

The state and the civil society are now headed for an imminent clash over corruption as integrity crisis plagues key institutions and corruption continues to thrive in the midst of the confusion.

Civil society groups now want the President to take personal responsibility over runaway corruption and failure to “inspire” leadership against the vice they claim has looted Sh376 billion from public coffers.

But the President, through his spokesman Manoah Esipisu, dismissed the groups, saying he does not work at their behest.

The National Assembly and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Corruption Commission, the two key institutions tasked with oversight and enforcing transparency and accountability, are reeling in a confidence crisis following a myriad accusations and counter-accusations of corruption.

Under the auspices of “The Devolution Forum”, the civil society groups led by activists John Githongo, Gladwel Otieno and Ndung’u Wainaina have compiled 13 grand corruption cases totaling about Sh376 billion they want the President to act on immediately.

“We demand that President Kenyatta addresses the country within seven days on what he proposes to do to address the runaway corruption that has engulfed his Government. If the president fails to do so, we shall begin a public mobilisation for direct citizen action to address the problem of corruption in the country,” the groups said on Friday.

The cases cited in the Sh376 billion dossier include the Sh26.4 billion laptop tendering process, whose cost was allegedly Sh1.4 billion above what the winning bidder quoted. It also includes the Sh63.5 billion JKIA terminal tendering, which was allegedly inflated by Sh9.5 billion.

Others are the Sh8.3 billion of irregular Office of the President money transfers questioned by the Auditor General, Sh50 million chicken-gate scandal involving electoral officials, Sh107 billion allegedly inflated from the original Standard Gauge Railway tender and the Sh175 billion Lamu coal project.

Also included in the list is the Sh100 million “hustler’s jet” scandal, Sh8 billion Karen land dispossession scheme, Sh15 billion Safaricom CCTV security network tender, attempted take-over of Lang’ata Primary school land, NSSF’s Sh13 billion Tassia II and Hazina Towers projects, Sh20 billion illegal charcoal sale in Kismayu and Sh3 billion Mara/Narok revenue collection tender.

Thriving corruption

“The buck must stop somewhere. The President and his deputy cannot keep pleading with public officers while corruption continues to thrive. They must now resign if they cannot reign in on the officers who work under them who are corrupt or commonly reputed to be corrupt,” lawyer Harun Ndubi said.

He blamed a corrupt political system, strictly legalistic culture, lack of anti-corruption inspiration from the top, a cautious media, incompetence of individuals tasked to enforce accountability, selfish political class, double standards in applying integrity threshold and laxity among Kenyans for the spread of vice.

But Esipisu said the President had already pronounced his commitment to fighting corruption through a number of measures, the latest being the executive order No. 6 which decreed an audit of all government tenders in the last two years.

“He does not act at the behest and pressure of civil society, which is itself accountable to no one. He is already taking decisive and unprecedented actions against the vice. Which President, in the history of this country, has ordered an audit of all Government tenders?” Esipisu asked.

He denied that President Kenyatta’s Government has any image crisis with regard to corruption. The spokesman said the fact that the Jubilee Government has allowed the rule of law to prevail whenever interest groups move to court to block projects or challenge one thing or the other does not mean it is condoning corruption.

Esipisu referred those saying the buck stops with the President to the 2010 constitution, saying it gives specific functions to specific institutions on specific matters, including corruption.

“To the contrary, the President has a duty to ensure some of these institutions work without interference. Now, if the President himself were to be seen to be interfering with these institutions, you will be the first persons to criticise him,” the spokesman said.

Esipisu used the recent revelations that the EACC received 9,465 complaints in the last one year to demonstrate the President’s predicament: “How the commission takes forward those cases is not for the President to determine, really.”

In the breakdown prepared to Parliament, EACC said of the 9,465 cases, it took up 4,501 cases and has so far completed 381 investigations, convicted people in three cases, acquitted nine, discharged six and withdrawn two.

The breakdown also presented an overview of 27 high profile cases under the commission’s radar, the amounts involved, dates reported, status of investigations and projected completion dates.

Sources at the commission attributed the current “siege” on the commission to presentation of this matrix, which has been widely distributed, including to the suspects.

In an interview with The Standard on Sunday, Githongo acknowledged that the most significant thing that has happened under the Jubilee regime in anti-corruption purge is the push by the President on Anglo Leasing investigations and prosecutions, but expressed dismay at the turn of events.

“It reminds one of the prosecution of former Water Minister Kipng’eno arap Ng’eny ?in 2000. Within months, individuals we had never heard of before (or since) went to court and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) was declared unconstitutional in December 2000,” Githongo said.

“One hopes a similarly cynical grift isn’t being perpetrated by the ruling elite here which would make the Anglo Leasing investigations and prosecutions merely a half-baked sideshow to launder the reputations of a few friends of the regime using the Judiciary.”

Mind-boggling figures

He claimed there is a cynical move to force a total shut-down of the commission in place of dealing with individual commission officials against whom credible allegations of corruption have been made. He reiterated his group’s earlier concern that the buck stop entirely with the President.

? Githongo said other than the President’s push for Anglo Leasing investigations whose potential for success is uncertain, the Jubilee Government has not been serious about fighting graft. He claimed the regime has been “producing” scams of mind-boggling figures week after week.

The 2014 Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index judged Kenya as more corrupt than Nigeria for the first time. Githongo claims that this ranking is a wake up call that Kenya could soon be a kleptocracy considering the scale of impunity that attends to corruption.

According to Ndubi, corruption is nowadays so much allover that one can write a whole PhD on it: “But the research cannot go deep because it is no longer sophisticated as it used to be.

The corrupt are more emboldened than ever to carry out their thievery in the most ridiculous of ways because they know no one will catch up with them.” In their statement, Githongo’s team claimed the country is witnessing a return of corruption to levels comparable only to the one-party era. They said entry of Chinese companies in the Kenyan market has “significantly reduced the possibility of accountability.”

“Where authorities have purported to prosecute, like the Anglo Leasing scandal, these prosecutions have been half-hearted and selective, and moreover, the authorities have produced evidence discrediting the EACC, as a diversionary tactic aimed at undermining the prosecution,” they said.

This week, a petition seeking the disbandment of the EACC was tabled in Parliament. The petition is riding on the controversial suspension of deputy CEO Michael Mubea, a letter to President Kenyatta by two commissioners and a host of allegations against the commission and individual commissioners.

Yesterday, EACC Chairman Mumo Matemu remained tight-lipped on the petition and what it portends for the commission. He said he could not discuss it since it he had not been served yet. He, however, exuded confidence that the commission was right on track.

“This war is not a small war. It is expected that there will be more of these schemes against us. The most important thing for us right now is that we retain our momentum and push harder with the fight. We are determined to succeed in our mandate,” Matemu told The Standard on Sunday.

He said the work the commission has is “heavy” and that it had begun putting together a comprehensive oversight and supervision mechanisms to ensure the momentum is sustained. Matemu, contrary to critics, claims the commission is keen to tempering discretion with accountability.

He warned Kenyans against giving up on anti-corruption fight arguing that they will be playing into the hands of the corrupt: “When you quit you will lose the country. Let us strengthen the fight rather than throw our hands up to the benefit of the corrupt.”

Matemu credits his commission for putting faces to the decade-plus old Anglo Leasing scam and taking people to court. He says the commission was only being praised a few weeks ago when it hauled the suspects to court and wonders what happened.

Additional reporting by Moses Njagih