Corruption: Can Raila-Karua slay  stubborn dragon? 

The Azimio-One Kenya coalition presidential candidate Raila Odinga will face a Herculean task of implementing the plan to slay the graft dragon should he win the August 9 election.

In his manifesto unveiled on Monday night, Raila and his running-mate Martha Karua laid down a raft of measures they intend to deploy to fight graft which is believed to gobble up over Sh800 billion public funds annually.

Raila, who has vowed to declare corruption a threat to national security, says he would establish a Corruption Surveillance Taskforce in security agencies within the first 100 days of taking office.

In an ambitious plan that has left questions about its practicability, Raila promises to ensure that government appointees and elected leaders take moral and political responsibility for misconduct in their dockets.

“The appointees and elected members shall not engage in any conflict of interest between public and private affairs including business with government whether directly or indirectly,” the manifesto states.

The Azimio flag bearer also stresses that appointees in their government and elected members would have to disclose their financial interests on taking office.

“Azimio government wants to face this dragon called corruption head-on to ensure that we can be able to do our things in a clean and fair manner. Kenya has a great potential. Kenya is a great country surrounded by neighbours with whom we want to work very closely with,” he said.

Political analyst and university lecturer Prof Macharia Munene says the duo’s promise on corruption requires a personal initiative and sacrifice.

“Without that, theirs remain an empty promise. They will have to sacrifice their friends, relatives and interests to achieve their goal of zero-tolerance to corruption,” says Macharia.

Corruption has been cited as an obstacle to the country’s social economic transformation.

Raila and Karua, who have packaged their candidature as new hope and a fresh start for Kenya, unveiled their vision for the country’s economic transformation which will require trillions to implement.

While promising that their agenda is achievable, they offered to among other interventions, to tame theft of public money in order to raise money to finance their programmes.

“We are persuading Kenyans and we intend to persuade a majority to offer us support. Once they are shown the political goodwill, they will step forward and support their government. The strategy that succeeds in fighting corruption is a strategy that calls upon the will of a majority of its people. We hope to inspire Kenyans to walk with us to fight corruption because our life depends on it, our health depends on it, our progress depends on it, our social support depends on utilising our shared revenue which is our taxes for the benefit of Kenyans not for a few,” Karua says of their plans.

Narc transition

Citing the transition from President Daniel arap Moi to Mwai Kibaki in 2002, she said: “During the first Narc government, Kenyans of goodwill stepped forward to help their government fight corruption. We had members of the public getting policemen with guns to return Sh50 bribes they had received. We had large numbers of people entering KICC to flush out those who had occupied it and taking control of it claiming ownership of it and handing it over to the Kibaki administration without even breaking a window pane. It will be possible with the support of the majority.”

The country, she said, had been unable to realise its potential due to massive theft, adding that corruption undermines development and ability of government to provide services since opportunities and resources meant for services are diverted.

“Remember we are losing Sh800 billion in a year to corruption. That is money diverted and we are not even talking about optimal use of money, unscheduled spending or exaggerated spending. We have not just picked these things from the air; these things have been costed by the experts. It’s possible and we will do it. We wouldn’t announce them if we didn’t think it was not possible,” she added.

Strenghten agencies

Among Azimio’s commitments is enhancing and fast tracking legal and administrative reforms that will facilitate the fight against corruption and establishing mechanisms to expedite investigations, prosecution and trial of graft cases.

Besides, Raila plans to introduce policies to regulate penalties and sentencing offenders on the basis of proportionality, accelerate recovery of proceeds of corruption and increase capacity of investigatory and enforcement institutions to combat graft.

Should they win, the two also promise to strengthen institutions fighting corruption among them the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Assets Recovery Agency and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution, which have in the recent past been subject of attacks by Deputy President William Ruto and his allies for allegedly targeting them.

Constitutional lawyer Ndegwa Njiru, who prosecuted the removal of former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko from office and handled the failed impeachment of Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru, says Raila and Karua can offer the necessary goodwill to push laws and empower institutions dealing with the fight against graft.

“Uhuru attempted to fight corruption but he could not succeed because of lack of holistic good will by his government. One wing of his government under the DP has been sabotaging him. Anytime Uhuru has made any move, they come out guns blazing saying they are being targeted. But If Azimio comes in, it will offer necessary good will because, when the war is launched, neither Raila nor Karua will say they are being targeted because they have no history of corruption,” Ndegwa told People Daily.

Many of Ruto’s surrogates, among them running mate Rigathi Gachagua, ex-Kiambu Governor Ferdinand Waititu and Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki, have graft cases in court while Waiguru is under investigation.

Kenya Kwanza

Ruto has claimed that State agencies had been sanctioned to fight him and his allies politically.

“The danger of having people like Gachagua who have court cases in charge is that their government will not support such a move but would instead want matters dragged and interfered with,” said the lawyer.

Azimio has made the fight against graft a central plank of its campaign.

The leaders have been cautioning the electorate against voting for the Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza team, saying it comprises of politicians who are saddled with corruption cases and claims.