Scandals
mark Jubilee’s four years in office
PHOTO COURTESY
Corruption has stood out to be Jubilee
government’s greatest undoing. Politicians, private sector and civil society
representatives say corruption has tainted President Uhuru Kenyatta’s
administration. Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Chairman Philip
Kinisu recently said that besides the Sh791 million that was fraudulently paid
out by the National Youth Service (NYS), the EACC was investigating other
procurement irregularities totaling over Sh761 million. Claims of impropriety
have since escalated from NYS to the Youth Fund where it is believed over Sh180
million was lost to fictitious contracts.
Recently, during his tour of Israel, President Kenyatta said that it was becoming difficult to identify the positives in his government because it is swamped in graft cases. With many corruption scandals, Uhuru in March last year submitted to Parliament a report by the EACC that listed names of top officials implicated in graft. The Cabinet and principal secretaries on the list leading were sacked. As a corrective measure, the Government says Sh2.24 billion of corruptly-acquired money and property has either been frozen or recovered. At least 337 cases related to corruption are in court of which, 68 involve senior officials among them MPs, governors, Cabinet and principal secretaries.
The
President said his government, working with Swiss authorities, had frozen Sh200
million held abroad in connection with the Anglo-Leasing fraud.
“We are working with other friendly governments to ensure that illegally acquired assets hidden in their countries are returned. It doesn’t matter what is acquired with the proceeds of corruption; ultimately, all will be forfeited,” Uhuru said. But the Jubilee government has only given lip-service to the anti-corruption fight.
ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi said the
Jubilee administration inherited a country bubbling with pride and optimism
under a progressive Constitution but has imprinted on it despondency, despair
and hopelessness. “It is amazing how every project that Jubilee has embarked on
is deliberately designed for the embezzlement of public funds. As some of our friends
outside this country have commented; ‘it seems that under the Jubilee
government, corruption is a virtue and a genetic inheritance’,” said Mr
Mudavadi. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Billow Kerrow (Mandera) said
corruption was one of the biggest challenges for the Jubilee administration.
Anti-graft crusader and civil society activist John Githongo said the Jubilee
coalition had raided public coffers with industrial efficiency. See also:
Increased funding for education a plus for Jubilee
“We are witnessing
corruption on a mega scale and there are signs that graft is the way of this regime,”
he said.
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