Politicians holding senior positions have been making all manner of allegations touching on general impropriety by public officers. It is, however, disturbing that little administrative, police or court action is being taken to address the allegations and punish offenders. The result is that they end up as lip-service while the suggested rot remains.

Only months ago, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua left Kenyans astonished with his narration of how some unnamed people in the previous government looted the National Treasury before President William Ruto took over. The money is said to have been carted away in cartons to Wilson Airport from where it was distributed to various homes owned by the powerful individuals who served in the previous administration.

By any standard, Sh16 billion is a huge amount of money which cannot be left an accounted for.

To date, no government agency has ever made a follow up on the DP’s statement to explain whether the money has been recovered and the action taken against the culprits. Before the dust settled on that remark, the President and the DP once again, were quoted threatening to disclose names of high profile individuals whose firms were exempted from paying taxes over the last five years or so. The chorus was soon joined by some Cabinet Secretaries and senior politicians who blamed the current economic situation in the country on those firms that either evaded paying taxes or were exempted from paying it.

 On Tuesday, President Ruto left Kenyans shocked after narrating how some corrupt government officials in the Department of Public Works attempted to sabotage a State- funded programme to import Sh580million worth of food.

 The officials whom he said were attached at the Supplies Department, after learning that the government, through the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) was set to buy foodstuff from the locals, inflated the market prices of rice from Sh5,000 to Sh7,200 per bag. The officials even went ahead to push KNTC to source cheap and sub-standard commodities from overseas. Luckily, State House intervened in the matter.

While we welcome the revelations of impropriety by government officials by the President and his deputy, we encourage them to institute legal action against the culprits. That is when the portent revelations will have a deterrence effect.