Uhuru must keep his word on graft

Kenyans had hoped President Uhuru Kenyatta would observe his zero tolerance principle on the war against corruption.

He has on several occasions made strong statements on how he intends to end the culture of corruption.

To the contrary, the President's past three-and-a-half years at the helm have been a clear testimony of everything moving from bad to worse.

A report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission indicates 74 per cent of Kenyans believe corruption is common and that it has increased during Uhuru's rule. Indeed, media reports have been awash with rising graft-related reports.

An example is the ongoing case on the loss of Sh791 million at the National Youth Service, which the Government initially denied. Today, the needle of investigations is pointing at firms associated with former and serving Devolution ministry officials, whose companies were used to steal taxpayers' money.

Even as the NYS saga continues, the jury is still out on how the Government spent the Sh250 billion it raised from the Eurobond.

Today, Kenyans are clueless on the truth about Eurobond and the status of investigations into the claims. It has been a trend of the current Government that all investigations into graft cases just fizzle out with time, perhaps hoping that whistleblowers and the public will forget.

Vetting of senior police officers that has been going on shows clearly how corrupt the police, among other civil servants, are. They have too much dirty money in their accounts, far beyond what they earn as salary.

With the 2010 Constitution, devolution has had its own share of corruption. It is shocking how governors drain millions of shillings into worthless projects, which are used as a conduit to steal from the public coffers.

Remember the case of a wheelbarrow costing over Sh100,000 and the Rio debacle, which shocked the whole world.