Fight against corruption vain without tough resolve

From the Goldenberg scandal in which Kenyans lost billions of shillings to fake gold exporting schemes, to Anglo-Leasing and more recent corruption cases such as 'Chickengate', what stands out is that the fight against graft is still far from being won despite lofty promises from the Government.

The struggle to slay the dragon of corruption is a tricky one because over time, it became embedded in Government. Embedded corruption works like a spider's web. It involves intricate links straddling various departments and spares no one.

A good example is Anglo-Leasing, which caught many people in its web. When graft crawls into a ministry or company, it means everyone - from the lowly placed workers to the most senior bosses - is vulnerable and may become part of the web. It also links organisations, ministries, the corporate world and shadowy syndicates that act as middlemen.

Many countries fighting corruption have established anti-corruption commissions and tasked them to investigate graft. In Kenya we have the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

Unfortunately, results have not been forthcoming, leading to questions about whether it is necessary to establish such bodies in the first place.

According to a report by EACC, the commission filed applications between 2013 and 2014 to obtain warrants to investigate 49 bank accounts in respect of persons or associates of persons suspected of engaging in corruption, economic crimes or related offences.

Not much has been heard about the cases, but it is open for all to see that while Kenya is yet to prosecute the big fish for decades-old cases, the United Kingdom in December last year convicted two directors of a company called Smith and Ouzman Ltd following its Serious Fraud Office investigation into corrupt payments made to Kenyan electoral chiefs.

The money was apparently paid out to facilitate the awarding of business contracts to the UK firm.

In a separate story carried in other pages of this paper, retired PCEA cleric and activist Timothy Njoya is quoted saying that it is unlikely justice will ever be served on those who perpetrated the mega-corruption scandals "as long as their cronies remain anchored in the system, which perpetrates the eating culture".

The outspoken cleric says all those behind the scams and those protecting them in Government belong in jail, but poses a rhetorical question: In whose jail are we going to confine them when it is their friends who are in key Government positions?

Njoya's sentiments echo the thoughts of millions of other Kenyans who have been watching helplessly and hoping that something will be done to eliminate corruption from our midst.

It is a tragedy that Kenyans have been made to feel this way by successive governments and leaders they have elected, but this should not be the case.

The electorate has all the power to change the situation and can easily dictate what sort of government they need if they exercise this power.

We should not get used to systems where everyone knows that to get things done, you must bribe someone every step of the way, because Kenyans don't deserve that kind of life.

We need to institute a culture where all the powerful politicians who act as godfathers of corruption get caught, handcuffed, thrown out of office and ultimately end up in jail.

Unfortunately in this country, corrupt leaders get re-elected again and again to Parliament and other sensitive electoral positions. It is time for Kenyans to get bold and start throwing unfit leaders out of office.

Once thrown out of office or into jail, leaders should not be allowed to make grand comebacks like they usually do.

Penalties for corruption should be severe enough to deter a recurrence of such acts.