CORRUPTION-KENYA: This Time, the March Will Go On

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Feb 15 2006 (IPS) - The corruption scandals dogging Kenya claimed two more scalps this week, with the resignation of Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi and his education counterpart, George Saitoti.

However, civil society groups say other high-ranking officials implicated in graft also need to step down or be dismissed by President Mwai Kibaki – and they have planned a demonstration in the capital of Nairobi in support of their call. The march, scheduled for Friday, is being organised by 76 organisations under the banner of the Name and Shame Corruption Network (NASCON).

A similar protest was brought to a halt last week when police dispersed hundreds of participants who had gathered in central Nairobi, on the grounds that they were there illegally.

For Friday’s demonstration, it was clear that NASCON representatives were not going to risk a repeat of last week’s events. Over 60 representatives notified officials Tuesday of the planned march, which has been approved. NASCON supporters intend to hand a petition to Kibaki demanding immediate prosecution of those embroiled in graft.

The leading members of government whom NASCON has in its sights include Vice President Moody Awori, linked to a scandal surrounding Anglo Leasing and Finance Limited.

This fictitious firm was awarded contracts for supplying Kenya with a system to produce passports that could not be forged, and for building police forensic laboratories. However, after questions about the passport deal started to be raised in 2004, Awori told parliament that there was nothing irregular about this agreement.

Anglo Leasing was paid about 100 million dollars for the various contracts, although the money was returned after the scam came to light. In response, then justice minister Kiraitu Murungi termed it “the scandal that never was”.

Francis Muthaura, who heads the public service, and Attorney General Amos Wako are also under siege – Muthaura being accused of trying to mislead donors over the Anglo Leasing matter.

Wako has attracted suspicion for not exercising greater vigilance concerning the Anglo Leasing agreements, and for his failure to secure even one conviction of persons implicated in another scandal involving the Goldenberg International company.

“We want the three to resign. If not, the president should sack them for knowingly cheating Kenyans while under oath,” Kepta Ombati, a member of NASCON’s coordinating committee, told IPS.

“If the president does not sack them, then we have to doubt if he is clean on this matter. We will also doubt if the president is committed to fighting graft,” he said.

“We (also) want them thoroughly investigated and prosecuted. Tax payers’ money which they have looted must be brought back as well.”

Kibaki came to power at the end of 2002 pledging to end the corruption that had flourished under his predecessor, Daniel arap Moi – in office for almost 25 years.

The president began his term by instituting a commission of enquiry into Goldenberg International, which was involved in the manipulation of an export compensation scheme set up to earn Kenya foreign exchange.

Government is said to have lost upwards of 600 million dollars in this scam, which took place in the early 1990s – and contributed to the 1997 decision by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to suspend several million dollars in aid to Kenya.

Saitoti’s resignation stemmed from the fact that he had been named in connection with the Goldenberg affair. The commission recommended that the former education minister – vice president and finance minister at the time that Goldenberg International was in operation – be amongst those prosecuted. He and 19 others implicated in the Goldenberg scandal have been ordered to remain in Kenya as investigations into this matter continue.

Kiraitu has been linked to the Anglo Leasing saga, along with David Mwiraria who resigned as finance minister about a fortnight ago.

The erstwhile energy minister is also accused of trying to prevent a probe into Anglo Leasing’s activities by former permanent secretary for ethics and governance John Githongo, whose findings were nonetheless leaked to the press last month – sparking the wave of ministerial resignations.

A tape recorded by Githongo on which Kiraitu is allegedly heard asking the former permanent secretary to slow his investigations in Anglo Leasing was broadcast recently by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Githongo is now based at Oxford University in Britain, where he resigned last year while on business – apparently in the wake of death threats for his efforts to curb graft in Kenya. He maintains that Kibaki has been aware for some time that top officials in his administration were implicated in the Anglo Leasing scandal.

Members of Kenya’s Public Accounts Committee – a parliamentary watchdog – flew to London last week to hold talks with Githongo about his dossier on Anglo Leasing.

Both Saitoti and Murungi deny any involvement or wrongdoing in the Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg affairs.

“I want to make one thing very clear: I have not been involved in corruption. Many things have been said about me, but deep inside me I know for certain that I did not play any part whatsoever in the Anglo Leasing deal,” Kiraitu told a press conference Tuesday.