More laws won’t help the anti-graft war without political goodwill, experts warn

The Government must implement existing laws to fight corruption effectively, legal experts have said. The experts were reacting to revelations that the Cabinet has approved new draft laws in the proposed Bribery Bill, 2016, and the Witness Protection (amendment) Bill, 2016.

Attorney General Githu Muigai has finalised review of the two Bills, which are ready for publication. In separate interviews with The Standard on Saturday, Transparency International (Kenya) chief Samuel Kimeu, university scholar Dr Godwin Murunga and former anti-graft czar and public governance expert John Githongo, said the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary must do more to enact existing laws.

“On paper, the (Bribery) Bill is an excellent idea and aligns Kenya with global best practice (but) there is no evidence of political will that would indicate this is more than paper shuffling...” said Mr Githongo yesterday. His view is that after the “anti-corruption spring in 2003” when he (Githongo) fought powerful cartels and exposed the Anglo Leasing scandal, the fight against corruption took a nose-dive to an extent that the Jubilee administration holds the tag of the “most corrupt government in Kenya’s history”.

He said if implemented fully and alongside other relevant laws, the Bribery Bill, 2016, holds promise in the fight against corruption. But, they have warned, if the trend of more laws and less action continues, Kenyans should not hope for much. Dr Murunga, a senior research fellow at the University of Nairobi, said the new laws, while good for the national psyche show that something was being done, they were unlikely to add real value if Kenyans do not see real convictions and refunds of stolen money.

“The question we should be asking about the anti-corruption strategy is: Is it a deficit of laws or the unwillingness to implement the already existing laws? Coming up with new laws makes us think that something is being done. It is good to tighten the rules, but how do we translate those laws into action?” he asked.

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Mr Kimeu, the Executive Director of Transparency International, said the Bribery Bill has proposals that would deal a blow to the givers of bribe, who have often been left off the hook, even as public officers are punished. “There’s value in that kind of law ...because it seeks to amplify bribery especially on the part of the giver of a bribe. Hitherto, the focus has been on the receiver,” said Kimeu.

He added that the punitive fines and sanctions would go a long way in ensuring that corruption is eliminated in the country.