The Opposition yesterday kept up the pressure on the Government, citing a list of national concerns to suggest the country was on autopilot and justify the push for a referendum.
The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) said that they had raised concern over rampant corruption and mortgaging of the country through heavy borrowing before.
They cited the latest Sh61 billion syndicated loan and ethnic exclusion through biased public appointments.
During a press conference at their Capitol Hill office, senators James Orengo (Siaya), Johnstone Muthama (Machakos) and Elizabeth Ongoro (Nominated) claimed the Jubilee administration is presiding over grand corruption.
“The country is on autopilot. Ours is becoming a thriller story like ‘Alice in Wonderland’. It is a fantasy world that even Jubilee is beginning to doubt,” said Mr Orengo.
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CORD said despite President Uhuru Kenyatta’s promise to fight graft, the menace had resurrected in a more vicious manner and had compromised flagship Vision 2030 projects and new development initiatives.
”By that time, Jubilee had increased our public debt by Sh860 billion in one year from Sh1.8 trillion to Sh2.6 trillion. This increase of 50 per cent is the largest annual increase in our history,” read CORD’s statement referring to their earlier warning on Government borrowing.
Orengo said: “We have asked for the plan to end corruption. He (Uhuru) has none. Kenyans expected the President to unite the nation and not tear it apart. Now Uhuru says he wants to give that role to elders.”
Muthama said the Opposition reminded President Kenyatta to cultivate ta culture of unity and inclusivity during last year’s Saba Saba day.
He claimed that key State institutions had abandoned the constitutional requirement that the appointment of State officers be done in a process guided by “the principles of equity, competitiveness and transparency and the promotion of gender equality”.
“We demanded a publication of the list of all senior public officers categorised by ethnicity, region and gender from the position of director upward, who had been sacked or transferred,” said Muthama.
CORD insisted that it is keen to right the wrongs inflicted on the Kenyans by a government that has become “a parasite and to lay a foundation that can shield Kenyans from the misadventures of a regime like Jubilee now and in future”.
Orengo said they would proceed with the quest for a referendum to strengthen governance challenges, end corruption, cushion institutions from a marauding regime, take more money to the grassroots and ensure equity and inclusion in public service appointments.
CORRUPTION EPICENTRE
The leaders said the Eurobond loan was supposed to stabilise the country’s economy, but instead it has wrecked it and the Government is not telling Kenyans how the money was spent.
“As a country, we are where we have never been before. A situation where the Government borrows billions from international markets, steals nearly all of it and then goes for another loan has never been seen in this country before,” said Ms Ongoro.
They described the Devolution ministry, under beleaguered Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru as the “epicentre of corruption at a scale and sense of impunity never seen before”.
Ongoro, who is also the Orange Democratic Movement deputy secretary general, said corruption had become normal under the watch of President Kenyatta.
“The Government chose to do nothing because corruption and theft are acceptable and respectable qualities in the Jubilee administration. Those who subvert the law, those who act with impunity and those who steal are the real heroes and pillars of Jubilee,” claimed Ongoro.
The lawmakers claimed corruption is costing the country about 300,000 new jobs every year, adding that it has caused the country to steadily slide down the annual list of failed States listed by Fund for Peace. As at 2013, Kenya was 17th from the bottom globally.
