When he came to power, President Uhuru Kenyatta promised to wage a fierce battle on graft.
Of course, a cross-section of Kenyans chose to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. Well, two years late, the President is still struggling to fight the scourge and it would appear he still has a long way to go.
Why is Uhuru yet to overcome this challenge? For me, the answer lies in the narrative of former top anti-graft managers. Most of them were hounded out of office after they touched the “live wire”. This is in apparent reference to high-profile cases they were handing.
Well, Uhuru has adopted a totally new strategy and he has so far demonstrated that he is ready to fight this scourge to the bitter end. His message has remained consistent and clear. He would rather lose his allies in political arena and civil service, who have been implicated in corruption, than shut his eyes and allow the vice to thrive under his watch. A few days ago, he took the war a notch higher when he sacked the five Cabinet secretaries whom he had asked to step aside after the Ethic and Anti-corruption Commission revealed that they were among 175 top Government officials being investigated in connection with mega-corruption.
A day before he unveiled his new Cabinet, he convened a meeting at State House that brought together the heads of all three arms of Government, departmental heads and those in private sector. He would unveil a raft of far-reaching measures that his Government has put in place to fight graft.
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I know those who do not criticise the President blindly would agree with me that the changes Uhuru made to Cabinet were designed to move the country forward. As he observed, they were meant to enhance service delivery to Kenyans.
After doing a critical analysis of the line-up, I would make three observations.
First, none of those appointed is implicated in corruption. Secondly, the list reflects the face of Kenya. Thirdly, the new CSs appointed and those retained or swapped are gifted with experiences and qualifications required to steer their respective dockets to greater height of prosperity and success.
