No Mr President, You’re Not Helpless

By Nicholas Olambo
A frustrated President Uhuru Kenyatta lashed out at anti graft agencies at governance, anti-corruption and accountability summit held at state house, Tuesday 18th. He sought to defend himself saying that he has done everything within his powers to strengthen the fight against corruption, including increasing the budgetary allocations to relevant agencies like the ever toothless EACC (Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission) and firing ministers linked to corruption allegations.

The president claimed that his fight to end corruption has to some extent cost him politically, he also blamed the Auditor General of writing numerous reports about misuse of public funds without naming individuals who are solely responsible for the misappropriation.

The judiciary also got a good share of the blame for over six hundred pending cases of corruption which they turn to blame on the analogue system. The opposition too did not miss their share; they are blamed for using corruption to seek political mileage when it should be approached as a national disaster.

The string of blames signifies nothing but a lost war. Judiciary complains of receiving weak cases to jail any suspect when it’s already known that the thread of judicial philosophy of Kenya is pro rich. The rights of the accused work best with for the rich in this country. Machakos Governor Dr. Alfred Mutua, for instance, was accused of flaunting procurement laws but got a lifeline through another court to resist arrest.

The string of blames signifies nothing but a lost war. Judiciary complains of receiving weak cases to jail any suspect when it’s already known that the thread of judicial philosophy of Kenya is pro rich. The rights of the accused work best with for the rich in this country. Machakos Governor Dr. Alfred Mutua, for instance, was accused of flaunting procurement laws but got a lifeline through another court to resist arrest.

Nairobi governor Dr Evans Kidero also got an injunction stopping investigators from snooping into his bank accounts when he was facing the shs 200 million bribe he allegedly paid Supreme Court judge, Phillip Tunoi. Judiciary is rotten, and heads will not roll when only ‘small people’ are charged within months and thrown behind bars and corruption chiefs walk free and run for political offices, gubernatorial and presidential.

The useless EACC sits only in Nairobi in a building with ownership problems. Corruption is now devolved and rampant in the counties where wheelbarrows are bought at over hundred thousand shillings, and a mere gate costs seven million shillings. Its distinguished list of shame did nothing to curb the vice; its 175 suspects are all free and seeking their ways to elective positions. No one has been found guilty and thrown in jail.

Now as the blame game continues, the reality of corruption rests with ordinary Kenyans starving, left with medical facilities without medicines, free education funds are looted and public schools are under staffed. This is because criminal minorities impoverish the majority of Kenyans and the response is to blame games and frustrations, a clear sign that the cartels are winning.

The buck must stop somewhere for the underperforming agencies, DPP’s who can’t prosecute even a fly, a judiciary that only receives weak cases of corruption and EACC that has turned out to be a cleaning house for the rich and powerful. The president has the power to change heads or fix these agencies through the parliament where he has the support of the majority wing.