President Uhuru Kenyatta draws red line on graft

President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses the nation, in Parliament, on Government’s progress on development.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s move to annex a list of high-fliers in his Government on anti-graft agency’s investigation with an executive decree that they step aside caught the country by surprise and threw Parliament into a spin over whether they should be made public or not.

But the President was clear that the personalities appearing on the list which Kenyans were speculating over whose name could be in it on the basis of long-running controversial investigations, including his Cabinet Secretaries, must step aside insisting that he had “drawn the line”. He also was emphatic that he was keen to send Kenyans the ultimate signal his administration was turning the tide on corruption and there was no stopping it.

But in the process the President, given the myriad of unfulfilled anti-graft pronouncements made in the past but not matched by action, left Kenyans speculating especially on social media if they won’t just be back in the fold after they are ‘cleared’, with some claiming this was meant to divert attention from the slump in reputation of Members of Parliament following stunning sleaze and sexual harassment claims.

Obvious names

Questions also rose on the timing and the fact that from those who have seen the list, some obvious names associated with cases of corruption that have been under investigation for years, were not on the list.

Others welcomed the move but with hope that this will be the norm rather than a one-off case meant to mitigate specific rise in feeling among Kenyans that the war against corruption had been lost.

“I am now eagerly waiting for that EACC report on Mumias Sugar Company as I do press-ups outside Parliament... Uhuru has made two right pronouncements whose weight can only be gauged by how he acts on them. Hope it ain’t his usual PR stunts,” said Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale on his Twitter account.

Also tweeting was Senior Counsel Ahmednasir Abdullahi who said: “Today’s speech and order was one of the most bold no-nonsense, visionary order of Uhuru’s government in 24 months.”

“I congratulate @UKenyatta on the apology for gross human rights violations by the government, past and present! We await TJRC implementation,” tweeted former Justice minister Martha Karua.

Anxiety gripped Parliament last evening, with MPs thronging National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi’s office to establish which names were on the confidential list forwarded by President Kenyatta.

There was panic among legislators from both the Government and Opposition, with unconfirmed reports indicating that up to five cabinet secretaries, parastatal bosses and even MPs were among personalities identified in the secret dossier for prosecution by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) for graft.

President Kenyatta had earlier given the boldest indications of his administration’s keenness to confront the ogre of corruption ravaging the country, breaking the rule of secrecy to disclose to Parliament the confidential report given to him by the anti-corruption organ.

The disclosure and call on those in the list of shame to immediately step aside saw the Head of State receive a rare standing ovation from Members of Parliament from across the political divide.

In a speech hailed by both the Jubilee and the Opposition Cord coalition members as the boldest declaration on the war against corruption by the country’s Head of State, Uhuru declared that it was time to face the vice head-on.

The President went against the general rule of secrecy and made public a confidential report forwarded to him by the Chief Executive Officer of the EACC Halake Waqo, containing names of personalities it has found culpable for corruption and who should face prosecution.

He admitted that the move to reveal the confidential document was extraordinary and necessitated by the desire to tackle the challenge.

“I hereby direct that all officials of the national and county governments that are adversely mentioned in this report, whether you are a cabinet secretary, principal secretary, or chief executive of a State institution, to immediately step aside pending conclusion of the investigations of the allegations against them,” the president directed.

“I expect the other arms of Government, namely the Legislature and the Judiciary, to do the same,” he added.

Report details

The President directed investigating bodies to immediately furnish the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with details contained in the report for speedy prosecution, even as he urged Judiciary to ensure that the dispensation of the cases was given priority and be concluded within two months.

The Head of State also attacked the embattled EACC, also wading in the quagmire of improprieties and infighting, accusing it of engaging in conflicts that are not aiding the fight against graft.

Similar attacks were directed at other oversight institutions that have been mandated to fight corruption, including committees of Parliament and even the Judiciary.

The Head of State even resulted to directly answer a section of legislators who had called on him to fire the EACC commissioners, saying the constitutional authority to fire the officials lied with the Parliament.

Already a petition has been presented in the House seeking to remove EACC chairman Mumo Matemu and Commissioner Irene Keino from office.

The President reported to the House that the EACC commission secretariat was under siege due to the nature of corruption cases the body was investigating.

The challenges of prosecuting those found culpable in the Anglo Leasing scandal found their way in the President’s address, with Uhuru complaining that there were forces out to scuttle the process.

On three occasions during the address, the Head of State received standing ovations.

First was when he courageously offered apology to Kenyans, on behalf of his administration and past regimes, for past injustices committed by the State.

“To move forward as one nation ... I stand before you today on my own behalf, that of my government and all past governments, to offer the sincere apology of the Government of the Republic of Kenya to all our compatriots for all past wrongs,” he said.

He was applauded further when he called on all those named in the confidential report to immediately resign.

He would receive a similar treatment at the end of the speech, with legislators certainly impressed by the measures that the Head of State had enumerated as his government’s agenda against the ills facing the nation.

While the President’s address touched on the values and principles of governance, national security and fulfillment of the international treaties, it was his courageous attack on corruption that stood out.