Let leaders respect investigative agencies

The political temperature is rising every day courtesy of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s-led anti-corruption crusade. It is not in doubt the war against graft in has split leaders. The executive is operating at cross purpose, and the same is true of the political class. The North Rift, and a section of the Mt Kenya region’s political elites are split too. The regions’ leaders are crying foul over the wave of arrests made by investigative agencies against managers and officials of various parastatals and the executive linked to corruption.

Fear is growing that the battle over the fight on corruption could quickly take an ethnic or regional twist and lead to violence. Deputy President William Ruto has several times alluded to the perception that the anti-corruption crusade has taken a political angle, and warned against targeting people on the basis of their perceived political persuasion. Unfortunately, his allies have now picked the chorus, warning that law enforcement agencies should not be ‘used’ to destroy people’s careers. This is indeed a dangerous trajectory.

On his part, President Kenyatta and Opposition supremo Raila Odinga, after the March 9 handshake, maintain that Kenyans have no option but to slay the dragon of graft that is threatening to waste the prospects of future generations.

It has not helped that Jubilee leaders allied to the President have issued stern warning to the DP, accusing him of disrespecting the President. For many Kenyans, it is now apparent that the President and his deputy do not seem to be reading from the same script on matters corruption.

At the same time, it is important to note that the energy and determination exhibited by the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti and the Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji in the war against corruption has given Kenyans high hopes. However, we acknowledge that concerns have been expressed about the trial of the cases. First, they take long to be adjudicated and dispensed with. Which is why the Executive has been critical of the Judiciary. Chief Justice David Maraga has committed himself to doing just that but we are not there yet.

But our concern is that as the war on corruption intensifies, the gains in fighting the vice are now being negated. Corruption persists in Kenya primarily because there are people in power who benefit from it and the existing governance institutions lack the will and capacity to stop them from doing so.

For the President, it is not in doubt that the biggest threat to his Big Four Agenda and his legacy is corruption. We concur that both administrative and legal measures must be summoned in this fight. One significant but often ignored truth is that fighting corruption is primarily a political project. The political will leading that fight will only succeed if it is credible.

For us, the substantive point of debate should delve on the quality of investigations and evidence presented before the courts. Prosecution and conviction are based on incontrovertible evidence. It is not lost on us that, in the first term of the Jubilee administration, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission gave the President a list of Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries and top government officials allegedly involved in graft, who were subsequently fired. But most of the accusations fell flat for lack of evidence. That is the kind of scenario we cannot countenance. Therefore, the starting point for winning the war against corruption is ensuring there is sufficient evidence.

It is worrying that politicians are warring over the manner corruption ought to or should be fought as though the country lacks a legal framework to guide the process. Since 1956, Kenya has had anti-corruption legislation. Kenya signified its commitment in the fight against corruption by ratifying the UN Convention against Corruption in December 2003 in Merida, Mexico. This was after becoming a signatory to the AU convention on Preventing and combating Corruption in 2003 Kenya later ratified the AU Convention in 2007. Indeed, the country has no shortage of the legal framework to deal with corruption.

- The writer is leader of Farmers Party. dnkigochi@yahoo.com.