Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto move to confront graft monster bleeding Kenya

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto receive the 2013–2018 Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Strategic Plan from its chairman Mumo Matemu during the official launch at KICC, Tuesday. Uhuru has taken tougher steps to curb corruption.   [PHOTO: PSCU]

By ALLY JAMAH and MOSES MICHIRA

Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta has ordered Attorney General Githu Muigai to strengthen weak anti-corruption laws meant to stop theft of revenue through State contracts, accounting loopholes and theft of public assets.

He made the announcement Tuesday when launching the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission’s (EACC’s) five-year strategic plan at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi. The focus of the plan is the recovery of stolen assets.

“There is overwhelming empirical evidence showing that corruption undermines development. It distorts resource allocation, diverting them to the personal gain of a few individuals and thus leading to a skewed distribution of income and wealth,” warned the Head of State.

Talking tough, President Kenyatta said the EACC Act and the Leadership and Integrity Act would be strengthened and a national policy on corruption drawn up to beef up the war on graft. 

He poured scorn on the corruption rankings by some international groups that consistently place Kenya high on the rungs of the most corrupt countries.

“For far too long, we have relied on foreign standards and studies, which fail to take sufficient account of Kenyans’ particular rights, experiences and interests,” he said.

Mr Mumo Matemu, the EACC chairman revealed that his commission had saved Kenya more than Sh70 billion as he pitched for more funding for the anti-graft body.

He warned that recent discoveries of oil and other natural resources might have set the stage for more complex corruption cases in future.

Procurement deals

EACC officers recovered assets worth Sh16.3 billion and averted the plunder of a further Sh55 billion in questionable procurement deals. In the previous period when the commission was faced with a power vacuum at its helm, assets worth only 126 million were recovered, while the commission averted losses estimated at Sh1.2 billion.

“I wish to assure all Kenyans that the Commission is determined to effectively implement this Strategic Plan with the strong belief that the war against corruption is capable of being won and can indeed be won,” said Matemu.

Among the public assets that were recovered through EACC’s intervention are 20 parcels of land in different parts of the country, all valued at Sh567 million.

Other public assets are houses in Woodley estate, the Mayor’s House in Nairobi, parcels of land excised from Karura Forest, Uhuru Gardens in Mombasa, Mt Elgon Hospital in Kitale and the Uasin Gishu District Hospital.

EACC this week charged former lands minister Amos Kimunya over his involvement in conferring a benefit in the form of a 25 hectares parcel to a company linked to him, in the latest high profile prosecution. Recovery of public assets that have been irregularly obtained has in the past been hampered by a shortfall of staff and slow judicial processes in Kenya. 

EACC has also stopped several procurement deals including the now suspended tender to supply a tugboat to Kenya Ports Authority expected to cost Sh1 billion, and the famous Sh121 million security tender at the Central Bank of Kenya.

EACC said the procurement process for the tugboat was flawed.

Matemu said in the report that the slow judicial process and adverse court decisions had offered significant setbacks for his office.

“EACC was affected by adverse judicial decisions which stopped investigations or prosecution of cases,” said the anti-graft czar.

In the past, the anti-corruption agency unsuccessfully sought to have powers to prosecute offenders as a mean of hastening the recovery of assets.

Even though a much weaker version of the Ethics And Anti-Corruption Commission Bill was passed by Parliament, the original proposition drawn up by the Constitution Implementation Commission envisaged a powerful agency to fight graft.

Frustration

EACC would also have been granted powers to appoint its own prosecutor with powers equivalent to those enjoyed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, following frustration suffered by the former boss, PLO Lumumba, and his predecessor, Justice (rtd) Aaron Ringera.

Parliament, however, retained the powers of the agency to investigate and recommend prosecutions to the DPP.

“There will, however, always be other people who will be vigorously and robustly waging war against the fight. Such people can be vicious and negatively innovative. Indeed, they are known to have succeeded in making the hunter become the hunted,” Mr Matemu said yesterday.

On the hunter becoming the hunted, he was referring to the fate that befell him and his predecessors at the Integrity Centre where bosses have been kicked out in haste.

He assumed office almost two years after the initial appointment, after successfully fighting off claims of corruption leveled against him in Parliament and in court.

His predecessors Lumumba, Ringera and former police sharp shooter Harun Mwau were all hounded out of office.

EACC expressed fresh fears that devolution and the recent discovery of natural resources in different parts of the country, including oil, coal and devolution through which massive resources have been channelled to the grassroots, all provided fertile grounds for mega corruption.