To slay the dragon of corruption, Judiciary has to play ball

It looks like the day to celebrate the real beginning of the fight against corruption is finally here! For the first time in the over four decades I have lived on this earth, there is clear and imminent evidence that leaders of at least three key agencies that can kill official graft in Kenya are reading from the same script. And the script says Corruption Must Die. How long the commitment will last is another matter altogether!

It is evident that the newly crowned Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti is keen to maintain his CV as a man who does what he sets out to do.

As a field officer Mr Kinoti is recorded to have led teams that have identified law breakers and went all the way to track them and neutralise them, even at the risk of placing his own life in real danger.

He has multiple gunshot wounds as testament to his fight against merchants of crime. His stint at the Anti Banking Fraud Unit of the Central Bank just gives him the right qualifications to deal with his current assignment, the thieves of public money.

Then there is the soft spoken new Director of Public Prosecutions. The brief history of Noordin Haji that is in public domain so far, shows a man with the mental and experiential attributes to fight, and kill, street learned wisdom of corrupt tenderpreneurship.

Role of NIS

Then there is the hidden, but prominent, hand and eye of the National Intelligence Service under the leadership of Philip Kameru. I don’t know much about him other than the fact that he led the Military Intelligence of the Kenya Defence Forces before he was named the Director General of NIS.

Other than the three arms involved in detecting, investigating, arresting and prosecuting fraud and its attendant fraudsters, there is a refreshing feeling in the air that the country’s chief executive officer has given the greenlight, nay, the order and the resources for the mission.

From the normal words and the unusual strategic silence, there is every indication that President Uhuru Kenyatta has indeed sanctioned the ongoing public spectacle that is the war against corruption. Unlike in previous instances, Uhuru does not seem- neither by word nor deed- keen to shield any suspect against, at least, public humiliation as officers carry out their duties in arresting the perpetration of public looting and looters.

No sacred cows please

Though the perception might change if, in the fullness of time, heads of parent ministries are not put on their defence. It is, however, interesting that an agency that would ordinarily hold a central position in any fight against graft, one whose only reason of existence, seems to be conspicuously absent in the unfolding drama.

The Halakhe Waqo-led Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has either been side-lined or its role kept uncharacteristically under the wraps. This could be either deliberate or inadvertent but it all works well for the overall mission. EACC as is currently constituted neither fits in the team nor does it inspire confidence. It does not have a new head and it has nothing to show for the decades it has been in existence. But that is a story for another day. 

But the elephant in the room as far as the theatre of criminal justice- for that is what corruption is- is concerned is the Justice David Maraga’s Judiciary.

Every effort being made, and seen to be made, will mean nothing if the Judiciary does not play ball. As expected, all those arrested for the crime of corruption and any other crime for that matter, are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The burden of proof of innocence or otherwise theoretically lies with the prosecution. Theoretically because more than half the time there have been allegations of connivance between judicial officers and the defense teams to defeat justice and set the thieving suspects free.

But even here, there are good signs.

Speaking during the official opening of the 2018 Kenya Diaspora Conference Maraga said “President Uhuru Kenyatta has assured Kenyans that the government will deal with those involved in these vices and I believe him. That’s why I’m asking you not give up on your country. This is the time to be patriotic,” Justice Maraga is reported to have said.

Now, you do not give such an assurance if you have no intentions of giving the subject course your full support, do you?

Mr Mureu comments on socio-political issues murepack@gmail.com