By Martin Mavenjina
Corruption has been a long-standing issue for Kenya’s Government since its independence.
Despite instances of embezzlement of public funds, few public officials have been held accountable.
The first president, Jomo Kenyatta was not wealthy when he first assumed office. But, by the time he left office, he, his extended family, and close allies had accumulated a vast portfolio of assets, including farms, plantations, hotels, casinos, insurance, shipping, and real estate companies, by the time of his death.
Daniel Moi’s 24 year in power were as riddled with corruption, theft of public resources through shell companies, secret trusts and front men were the primary vehicles of corruption.
According to a report by the international Risk Consultancy Kroll that was published on August 31, 2007, close relatives of President Moi siphoned close to one billion pounds that was held in multi-million properties in London, Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
His sons, Phillip, and Gideon were reported to be worth three hundred and eighty-four million pounds and five hundred and fifty million pounds respectively. The Kenyan Government, dismissed the report arguing it was a plot by President Kibaki to score political points.
When running for elections in 2002, Mwai Kibaki made a commitment when elected, he would form a cabinet devoid of corruption, restore confidence in the country’s Government and uphold the trust Kenyans placed in their government.
The promise to comprehensively deal with graft may be one of the many reasons why Kenyans overwhelmingly voted for President Kibaki. During his presidency, Kibaki failed to deal with corruption, despite the Goldenberg and Anglo leasing scandals, that almost brought down his administration.
The Parliament passing the Kenya Anti-Corruption law and established an anti-corruption Commission did little to prevent corruption.
In 2005, Kibaki’s Advisor on anti-corruption, John Githongo resigned after leaking allegations of fraud that he said, led all the way to the presidency.
In 2009, the Kenyan Government was accused of blocking an investigation by the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office into a 500 billion pounds corruption scandal that allegedly involved a network of British businessmen.
Rob Macaire, the then British High Commissioner to Kenya stated that the Serious Fraud Office had been extensively dealing with the then Attorney General, Amos Wako, regarding their request for evidence that would have culminated into a successful prosecution but this was not forthcoming.
The Constitution of Kenya 2010
The 2010 Constitution of Kenya enacted various legislation’s on enhancing good governance, accountability and promoting the rule of law. Despite that corruption, theft, plunder, and misuse of public resources, including financial and land-based resources, have persisted.
President Kibaki is celebrated as Kenya’s “best” President, but the Ango Leasing Scandal soiled his legacy. By the end of his term in 2013, many politicians accused of graft were never punished while some had successfully sought leadership positions in the 2013 general election.
When President Uhuru Kenyatta assumed office as Kenya’s fourth president, his administration was plagued with numerous graft case. It included, the controversial Sh250 billion Eurobond scandal.
The year 2014 marked the beginning of serious graft and misuse of public resources during President Kenyatta’s Presidency.
Kenya was issued a $2 billion Eurobond in two tranches of $1.5 billion over a ten-year period and a $500 million bond over five years, with the funds deposited in JP Morgan Chase, New York.
The then Auditor General, Edward Ouko, in his annual audit reports, exposed an environment of unprecedented permissiveness for corruption at both the national and county levels. He indicated in his 2013/2014 report, that only 1.2 percent of the government expenditure could not be properly accounted for.
The reports also disclosed that Sh54 billion of the total proceeds were used to settle a syndicated loan that the government took in 2012. His attempts to audit the funds were met with resistance from the state. President Kenyatta dismissed issues Ouko raised.
On November 22, 2015, Ann Waiguru, then the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Devolution and Planning, resigned from her position following pressure from the public, opposition, and members of her own party.
Her resignation followed the loss of Sh791 million from the ministry’s coffers. Waiguru was cleared of all charges by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and went on to win the gubernatorial elections in Kirinyaga County in 2017.
While cases against other suspects of the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal are still ongoing, justice remains elusive, and corruption continues to be a major challenge in Kenya.
On July 22, 2019, Kenya’s then Finance Minister Henry Rotich and the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Kamau Thugge were arrested over the multi-billion-shilling Arror and Kimwarer dam’s scandal.
This followed an order by the then Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Noordin Haji, for the arrest and prosecution of Rotich and his Principal Secretary (PS) Kamau Thugge among other top government officials. In 2017, USAID suspended USD 21 million funding for activities carried out by several of the ministries and departments over corruption and weak accounting procedures.
A report released by the EACC led to the suspension of four cabinet secretaries by President Kenyatta. They included; Felix Koskei (Agriculture), Davis Chirchir (Energy), Michael Kamau (Transport) and Kazungu Kambi (Labour) for allegedly being involved in corruption.
Other scandals during Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidency included the Chickengate where 50 billion was paid to electoral officials by Smith and Ouzman, a UK based firm as kickbacks to secure lucrative deal to print ballot papers; irregular tendering for the new JKIA terminal (Sh55.6 billion), and single sourcing for the police CCTV project (Sh15 billion).
The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) had on multiple occasions exposed an environment of unprecedented permissiveness for corruption at both the national and county levels.
For instance, in the 2014/2015 report, that only 1.2 percent of the government expenditure could be properly accounted for. The Annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) published by Transparency International in 2016 ranked Kenya at position 145 out 178 countries worldwide.
Uhuru’s legacy regarding the war against graft will be remembered by Kenyans for three things; his admission on the January 18, 2021 that Sh2billion was stolen daily from government, publicly expressing his frustration on the rampant corruption during his presidency and blatantly asking Kenyans what he should do during a State House summit on the fight against corruption on October 18 2016.
On September 13, 2022, William Ruto was sworn in as Kenya’s fifth President and just like his predecessors, he promised to fight corruption.
During Mashujaa Day celebrations at Uhuru Gardens on October 20, 2022, a tough talking President Ruto reiterated his promise to Kenyans that he would neither interfere with the fight against corruption nor seek to control independent institutions mandated to fight graft.
He further stated that the war against corruption must be won. These sentiments by the Head of State were viewed by many Kenyans as the beginning of a new dawn in the war against graft, that had not only severely affected Kenyans either directly or indirectly since independence.
One may have thought that the chickens had finally come to roast and that all those implicated in corruption cases would finally have their day in court, but alas, it was business as usual.
In the months that followed since President Ruto was sworn into office and handed the instruments, several high-profile graft cases against allies of the President have been dropped by the then DPP, Noordin Haji.
For instance, in November 2022, the DPP successfully applied for and withdrew a Sh7.3 billion corruption charge against Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Similarly, corruption charges against the Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Public Service, Gender, and Affirmative Action Hon Aisha Jumwa, related to the embezzlement of Sh19 million (USD155,700) from the Malindi National Government Constituency Development Fund were withdrawn by the DPP.
Graft cases against former Kenya Power Managing Directors Ben Chumo and Ken Tarus, accused of failing to comply with procurement laws amongst other claims in the purchase of transformer were also successfully dropped following an application by the DPP, citing lack of sufficient evidence to sustain the charge.
The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) and Civil Society Organizations issued press statements, condemning the DPP for what they perceived as ulterior motives for his decision to drop graft cases against close allies of President William Ruto.
On May 15, 2023, President Ruto nominated Kamau Thugge who had been forced out of his position at the National Treasury over his alleged role in the Kimwarer and Arror dams scandal in Elgeyo Marakwet as the next Governor for the Central Bank of Kenya following a recommendation from the Public Service Commission.
On May 16 2023, Noordin Haji, the then the DPP was nominated by President Ruto as the next Director General of the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
Despite mixed reactions to these nominations with a section of civil society organizations submitting petitions to Parliament citing serious grounds on why both nominees should be rejected and a deafening silence from the opposition around these nominees, the National Assembly approved both nominations.
Perhaps it is on that basis that Kenya is described as the most rapacious state that has created an atmosphere in Graft civil servants, politicians and businessmen engage in corruption on a grand destructive scale.
This is premised on the fact that the government has failed to comprehensively tackle graft in public offices, demonstrate greater transparency in procurement processes by not publicizing information on tender analysis, detailed contractor profiles including list of directors, engagement contracts and bills of quantities.
This is indeed a clear demonstration and manifestation of lack of political will/interest on the side of the political leadership to combat corruption.
Despite numerous legal and institutional frameworks established to combat corruption, the widespread incidents of theft, plunder, and misuse of public resources, including financial and land-based resources, persist without reduction.
As of January 31 2023, Kenya was ranked the 123 least corrupt nation out of 180 countries, according to the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index report by Transparency International.
While the promise to fight corruption has been a clarion call for the eventual winner of the Presidential Elections in General Elections since the introduction of multi-party politics in Kenya, successive Governments have in in spectacular fashion failed to win the war against corruption because of lack of political will.
Critical actors like civil society organization’s the media and the office of the Auditor General have on multiple occasions document and exposed the mismanagement and theft of funds by public officials, there seems to be a genuine failure on the part of the investigative agencies like the EACC that is tasked with gathering information on corruption occurring in Government and Public Sector, the National Police Service to that are ordinarily tasked with conducting investigations and also the ODPP who have more recently withdrawn many corruption related cases against accused persons.
Corruption is deeply entrenched in the Kenyan social fabric and public offices. Tackling it effectively would certainly require a comprehensive overhaul of the anti-corruption system, a change in the attitude and character of the political leadership, robust and thorough investigations by investigative agencies, robust Government oversight, and political goodwill.
Considering that most of those alleged grand corruption suspects have been exonerated under mysterious circumstances and with some reappointed to public offices, one can only wonder when the Government will walk the talk in its war against graft.
The writer is a Senior Program Advisor -Transitional Justice, Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC)
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