There is no political goodwill in government to fight ogre of corruption

EACC chairperson David Oginde with speaking during the commemoration of African Anti-Corruption day in Nairobi on July 11th 2024. [Collins Oduor, Standard] The war against corruption, if there was any in the first place, is wasted effort. Recent events show there is no goodwill in government to fight corruption. A tweet by lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi last week contextualised the matter thus: "Who told you the 'country is fighting' corruption? Kenya is nurturing corruption as a governmental policy!" The rigmarole of vetting Cabinet Secretaries is a charade meant to satisfy a requirement of a section of the constitution even as it makes mockery of another, specifically, Chapter Six of the Constitution. This chapter charges state officers to uphold the highest standards of integrity, competence and diligence. Simply put, integrity encompases honesty and strong moral principles. It is easy to wonder how seriously those in leadership positions take Chapter six of the constitution when among the Cabinet Secretaries and the executive there are individuals whose past is replete with cases that question their integrity. Two years ago, the Office of the Directorate of Public Prosecutions cleared some high profile cases in circumstances that reeked of dishonesty. Cases against Rigathi Gachagua, facing a Sh7.3 corruption charge while serving as Mathira MP, Aisha Jumwa, who was facing a murder charge, Mithika Linturi, who was facing parental neglect and rape charges, among many others, were abruptly dropped when the Ruto administration took over power. No plausible explanations were given, and these individuals went on to serve in the Cabinet. The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) sought to know the grounds on which these cases were dropped, but the government, being the deaf bully that it is, ignored LSK probing, and the matter fizzled out. In an encore, the DPP has cleared former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya of corruption charges preferred against him by the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC), perhaps to allow him to be vetted by Parliament as CS nominee for the ministry of Cooperatives. It is a requirement of the law that nominees or aspirants to public offices get clearances from the Kenya Revenue Authority, Higher Education Loans Board and EACC. There are three pointers to mischief in Oparanya's case. First, there are claims the DPP's letter that terminated charges against Oparanya was backdated to a date shortly before his nomination to the Cabinet was announced. Secondly, EACC has raised objection to the DPP's decision to clear Oparanya and third, Gladys Shollei, Deputy National Assembly Speaker, came to the defense of Oparanya while stating that EACC has no power to bar anybody from running for public office. Who is fooling who here? Such happenings lend credence to grievances raised by Gen Z against bad governance. For meaningful change to happen in Kenya, there must be a total overhaul of the governance structure. We cannot afford to be saddled with recycled deadwood; leaders who have greatly contributed to bad governance, weakening of institutions and the entrenchment of corruption, directly or indirectly through proxies. A zebra does not become a donkey by obliterating its strips. Of note, the vetting has revealed that all the Cabinet nominees are millionaires. There are no strugglers, not that strugglers lack requisite academic credentials. Is it a coincidence, or a pointer that the government is an exclusive club? That the indigent's place is to provide votes for the rich to occupy high office and wait for crumbs? In a social media post, my friend, Achitsa Achitsa, wondered: "If our CS nominees are such wealth creation geniuses, why is our economy in tatters? What do they need government jobs for?" This is a pertinent question that craves answers. If past experiences with high ranking government officials is anything to go by, it is hard to convince anyone that these individuals are consumed by altruistic desire to serve the public. Most are out to feather their own nests.

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