Under pressure from the younger generation Kenyans (Generation Z) for presiding over the perpetuations of poor governance, President William Ruto, among other things, pledged to fight corruption.
Ruto said robust measures had been implemented to tame individuals hell-bent on misappropriating public funds. The President said all the corruption cases would be dispensed with within six months once presented to the court.
Though particularly reassuring, many did not believe him. Like his predecessors, Ruto was not making the anti-corruption pledge for the first time.
Just days down the line all indications were that the sceptics could as well have been vindicated. Kenya, it would appear, still hopelessly lacks the political will and the judicial money to slay the corruption dragon.
The termination of a mega corruption case against former Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala and 16 others could not have been more ominous. In a letter dated July 31, 2024, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) ordered the discontinuation of the proceedings as “investigations had not been completed and full disclosure made”.
Consequently, a coastal Kenya Malindi court allowed the application by the ODPP to withdraw the graft case. Balala was arrested on December 22, 2023, following allegations that the Tourism Fund, under his watch, fraudulently paid Sh8.5 billion ($56m) to set up the Coast branch of the Kenya Utalii College.
He subsequently appeared before Malindi Chief Magistrate Joseph Mwaniki and was charged alongside his former Principal Secretary Leah Gwiyo and 82-year-old Joseph Odero. They all denied the charges.
On acquitting them, the court magistrate cited Section 87(a) of the Criminal Code. He also directed that the cash bail and any security documents deposited in court be released to the sureties and the latter be relieved of their obligations. The magistrate reiterated that withdrawal of the charges as sought by the ODPP could not be said to amount to an abuse of court process.
Equally telling was the case of one of Ruto’s Cabinet Secretary nominees Wycliffe Oparanya. The Co-operatives and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development CS nominee was facing an alleged graft case, filed by the Ethics and Antic-Corruption Commission (EACC).
However, in a move that took many aback, ODPP withdrew the recommendations to have him prosecuted. The anti-graft body said that it did not agree with the ODPP’s decision to withdraw the approval to have the former governor charged. Indications.
Yet, Oparanya will have his way. He was cleared for vetting as a CS and predictably passed and is now the boss of a ministerial docket.
In the proverbial hunter being the hunted reincarnation, Oparanya was now threatening to sue the EACC commissioners, while the latter seemed to have developed cold feet, and reckoned that it was not in their province to clear candidates for CS appointments. Interestingly, ordinary Kenyans need clearance from the agency for state appointments.
Oparanya, through his lawyers Marende and Nyaundi Advocates has written to Parliament accusing the EACC of malice.
It should be remembered that virtually everyone Ruto had appointed to high office upon his ascendance to power in August 2022, had some integrity issues.
Then a flurry of abracadabra happened with the ODPP and the Judiciary clearing them one after another. Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua even had his Sh200 million $ 1.59 million seized for being the proceeds of corruption returned to him. His $60m corruption case was also dropped for ‘insufficient evidence’.
Anthony Mwaura, who had been charged with conspiracy to corruptly embezzle $28.3million from the Nairobi County government, was appointed theChair of the Board of Directors at the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) in November 2022.
However, one Dr Benjamin Gikenyi challenged the legality of his appointment. The medic told the court that Mwaura was at the time facing a myriad of criminal charges relating to the theft of colossal sums of money from the Nairobi County Government, but he was acquitted in the case in February this year.
The High Court has since quashed the appointment, saying it was illegal as it was made when Mwaura was facing corruption charges.
Mithika Linturi came to the nomination panel for the CS Ministry of Agriculture facing 35 charges in court (by his own confession). Predictably, the panel cleared him to take charge of the critical docket. Less than a year later, he would be embroiled in the mega scandal of the sale of fake fertilisers to farmers. A parliamentary committee later cleared Linturi of any wrongdoing only for the axe to fall on him, thanks to the Gen Zs revolt.
If two things have condemned Kenya to what Donald Trump calls ‘s..thole’ status; they are corruption and tribalism. But then again they are what have sustained the successive regimes in power.
Ruto’s predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta said Kenya was losing Sh2bn ($16m) daily to corruption, of course under his watch. Rather than deploy the state machinery at his disposal to tame the menace, he wondered aloud what anyone expected him to do about it.
Uhuru’s predecessors Mwai Kibaki and Daniel arap Moi presided over the humongous Anglo-Leasing and Goldenberg scandals respectively, without any big fish being nailed. Not surprisingly, Kenya continues to be ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world by the watchdog Transparency International.
When all is said and done, there can be no denying that fighting corruption in East Africa’s economy will remain a long shot, at least in the foreseeable future.
