NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 20- Kenya Kwanza presidential running mate Rigathi Gachagua now says their administration, if elected, will not spare any effort to end what he terms as state capture.
Speaking during the televised second-tier presidential running mate debate on Tuesday, Gachagua said “state capture corruption is worse than that of procurement.”
Gachagua was facing off Martha Karua of the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance.
He accused President Uhuru Kenyatta and his family of benefiting from the state capture and even tabled a gazette notice allegedly righting off taxes for a financial institution linked to them.
In their manifesto, Deputy President William Ruto said there will be a commission to probe the extent of state capture in Kenya and those involved.
“We will not go after anybody, we will go after all those that who are in state capture and conflict of interest,” Gachagua, who is the current legislator for Mathira said.
“You are aware that the milk industry has been monopolized by state capture and conflict interest, where the owners of that monopoly decide how much to buy from farmers and sell to consumers.”
He asserted that, “anybody involved in state capture and conflict of interest will be held to account.”
On fighting corruption, the 52-year-old businessman cum politician said the Kenya Kwanza administration will empower the investigating agencies.
“Corruption must be fought and the real corruption is state capture,” he said. ‘State capture is when people in power allocate projects where they have an interest.”
He gave ana example of a gazette notice, legal No. 112 dated June 26, 2019 where he said two institutions owned by President Kenyatta’s family were exempted from paying Sh350 million, “money that can put up 35 level three hospitals in Kenya. That is conflict of interest and state capture. It is worse than corruption associated with public procurement.”
He also said the renovated Nairobi-Nanyuki railway line “that serves one company that supplies fuel to Nanyuki.”
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