The presidential,gubernatorial and parliamentary candidates don’t spend much time with voters.Instead, they commit many days courting millionaires and billionaires who can fuel their political office bid.And at the same time,activists in the left and right seek to redefine political corruption,which they believe this is.
One prime example: The political network of Raila Odinga- who made his presidential intentions clear as early as 2001 when he led his party,NDP, into merger with KANU- was believed to be putting together a sizable war chest with pledges of nearly $50 millions from former Libya leader Muammar Gaddafi and the family in 2007
Corruption had a history which spans the era of both Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi’s KANU government to Mwai Kibaki government.
In 2012, Kenya was ranked 139th out of 176 countries with the greatest level of corruption.It was an argument that mistook the nature of human greed, Argues John Githongo, who resigned as Kenya’s anti-corruption czar in 2005 after stumbling upon $ 1 billion procurement Anglo-leasing scam.” When you have 1 million you want 10 million, and when you have 10, you want 20.It’s never enough”
Each Kenyan administration has boasted it’s own high-profile corruption scandal.Under Moi , there was the goldenberg scandal which started with false gold exports and spiraled outward triggering the collapse of kenya shillings, Mwai Kibaki presidency saw the Anglo leasing tendering scams involving eighteen military and security contracts.The Coalition government ushered in after traumatic post election violence was marked by scams that emptied Kenya’s granaries of maize and drained oil from it’s state petroleum company.
This kind of cat and mouse play for the blessing of billionaires used to be over the line between politics as usual and corruption.George Muthiora Chege of Pretoria, South Africa says, ” The taxpayer has to have – has a right to have a meaningful voice in choosing the people who are going to spend the money”.
“It’s skeptical that corruption can be fixed with new campaign finance rules.They would inject more government activity into elections”, Pius Murathe Maina a resident of Nairobi says.” I doubt that they’ll have any effect on people’s perception of corruption, or actual corruption in areas like lobbying”.
On March this year,Five Cabinent secretaries,twelve governors, six principal secretaries,senators,member of parliaments were among 175 public officers who were forwarded to the speakers of parliament by president Uhuru Kenyatta during his second state of nation address and were directed to step aside to allow for investigations into corruption allegations leveled against them.
Despite Transparency International calling Kenya “eating culture” Kenya is vigorously fighting corruption.In 2011 it disbanded The Kenya anti corruption commission (KACC) and replaced it with newly instated Ethics and anti corruption commission (EACC) which recently indicted 175 public officers with corruption allegations.Also in February 2015,Kenya parliament passed political parties (Amendment) bill to regulate and distribute campaign cash . Though president Kenyatta critics have a narrative doing the rounds the country,” Uhuru Kenyatta and his allies have already made their fortunes and their appetites would be smaller and that’s why they passed this bills and pretending to fight corruption”.
Report written by Samuel Wamwea sr
