CORRUPTION-KENYA: An Amnesty Perhaps Not Worth Its Weight in Gold

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama

NAIROBI, Oct 4 2006 (IPS) - A recent proposal by Kenya’s government to provide amnesty to corrupt officials who return stolen funds has prompted concerns in the East African country, where some fear the initiative may encourage more graft – and ultimately a culture of impunity.

“If you calculate the amount of money lost through corruption, you cannot afford to give amnesty,” Maina Kiai, chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, told IPS.

“It is taxpayers’ money we are talking about. The government owns no money, so it cannot decide on the amnesty. It is Kenyan taxpayers as owners of the money who can decide,” he noted, adding that this would need to be done by means of a referendum.

The amnesty initiative comes after Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua released a list containing the names of government officials implicated in the so-called Anglo Leasing scandal.

Unearthed in 2004, this involved dubious, multi-million dollar contracts for supplying Kenya with a system to produce tamper-proof passports, and for building police forensic laboratories. The deals involved Anglo Leasing and Finance Ltd – a fictitious company. Some of the money paid out in connection with this scam has apparently been recovered already.

Officials, including ministers in the former and current governments, are on the list.

The scandal has pitted Mwai Kibaki’s four-year-old administration against donors, and resulted in the resignation of David Mwiraria, formerly minister of finance – and his counterpart in the justice department, Kiraitu Murungi. Both men feature on Karua’s list.

Former internal security minister Chris Murungaru is also mentioned, as is Vice President Moody Awori who has resisted pressure to quit his post, maintaining that he did not commit any crime.

Most names on the list also figure in a dossier on the Anglo Leasing scandal compiled by John Githongo; this former ethics and governance permanent secretary was charged with advising Kibaki on curbing corruption. Githongo resigned last year, claiming that influential members of government were frustrating his efforts to fight graft. He is now living in Britain.

The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) says it has interviewed 270 people in connection with Anglo Leasing, and recommended prosecution for a number of them; these include four former ministers and three former permanent secretaries. This week, the attorney general promised action on cases brought forward by KACC.

Besides the Anglo Leasing scam, Kenya continues to be dogged by another scandal, the Goldenberg affair, which took place in the early 1990s.

As a result of this instance of graft, about 600 million dollars were lost through fictitious gold and diamond exports. Key members of government, including former head of state Daniel arap Moi and several of his ministers, were implicated in the scandal – described as the country’s biggest ever. To date, no one has been prosecuted in connection with the crime.

Certain members of the public fear the huge sums of money involved in grand corruption will allow officials to manipulate the amnesty offer.

“How sure are we that the looters will return all they stole? One may bring only a tenth of what he stole, leaving the bulk of it in foreign banks, and still be pardoned,” Ochieng Asila, a newspaper vendor in the capital of Nairobi, told IPS.

“Let those who stole face the full (force) of the law, return the loot and be locked up in jail. We cannot continue to allow the government to play with taxpayers’ money while millions of Kenyans cannot even access basic facilities.”

Geoffrey Birundu of the Name and Shame Corruption Network, an umbrella body for anti-graft organisations, shares these sentiments.

“If there was no looting, the government would have used the money to drill boreholes in the arid North Eastern Province, and build hospitals in the remote parts of the country where people are dying as they walk miles and miles to a health facility. The deaths are unnecessary,” he said.

Human rights organisations have announced that they will embark on an education campaign across the country to increase public understanding of the disadvantages of an amnesty, in the event that government pushes ahead with it.

Certain members of parliament reportedly plan to sponsor an amnesty bill in the legislature.

“The corruption problem in Kenya exists because (members of) the political class…are in bed with each other regardless of their party affiliation when it comes to discussing issues that will protect them and make their pockets fatter,” said Kiai.

In a move that some may now regard with irony, Kibaki’s government came to power in 2002 on an anti-corruption platform.