After decades of inaction on runaway corruption, Kenyan authorities are now being forced to walk the straight and narrow path in the fight against the vice.
Changed circumstances at home and abroad are compelling President Kibaki to set aside prevarication, a trait both friend and foe ascribe to his administration since he came to power.
That the international community may have a hand in the President’s renewed energy is demonstrated by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent revelation that the Obama Administration used force and threats to persuade the two principals to spearhead the Constitution review process and cooperate with the ICC.
President Kibaki and Raila odinga
The outcome was the rare bold decision they took last Monday to suspend Higher Education Minister William Ruto.
Sources in President Kibaki’s inner cycle intimate that the President is following with keen interest the unfolding scandal of financial fiddling at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The line minister, Mr Moses Wetang’ula, is implicated in massive financial rip-offs that have once more put the Kibaki administration in negative light among international donors (see separate story).
“The realisation a new Constitution has left the executive with limited choices in fighting economic and social evils. The new Constitution leaves the two principals few options. Unlike the past when the Executive would ignore court rulings or parliamentary reports, the new laws are explicit on the President’s inaction,” says Fisheries Minister Jeffa Kingi.
The new Constitution provides an avenue for any interested party to file in court criminal charges against public office holders in the event the President fails to act. Kingi says the new Constitution leaves the Executive with no latitude to circumvent the laws or prevaricate.
“The new Constitution has reduced the President’s space to the narrow and straight. Under the old constitution the President had some veto powers over the decision of the court and the legislature. This is no longer the case,” says the minister.
The miffed president is concerned that the financial fraud thrived and sabotaged agreements he had personally worked out.
The Abuja and Tokyo in which the taxpayer lost Sh1.75 billion was government-to-government transaction that the president negotiated with his counterparts.
As the House committee on Defence and Foreign Relations chairman Adan Keynan moved a motion in Parliament to adopt a report that details fraud in the foreign office, there were strong indications that Kibaki, said to be angry with his minister, was contemplating suspending him too.
As the matter comes up for debate this week, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga will be watching keenly to see how it unfolds.
The President’s rapid response to fraud is a major departure from the confusion and desperation he demonstrated since his controversial re-election in 2007 that was characterised by inaction on similar allegations of graft.
Fence sitter
Planning Minister Wycliffe Oparanya says the President’s newfound gusto and confidence are an outcome of improved working relations with Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who he spent the first two years struggling to tame.
Buoyed by the confidence that he has nothing to lose less than 18 months before he surrenders power, President Kibaki, has eschewed the tag of a fence sitter in favour of direct engagement.
In 2005 the President reluctantly asked former Finance minister Daudi Mwiraria, former Internal Security Minister Chris Murungaru, Prof George Saitoti and Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi (then minister for Constitutional Affairs) to step aside.
However, the President failed to take action against then Internal Security Minister John Michuki following a damning report on the Artur mercenaries. The report has yet to be made public. Cabinet ministers and political analysts interviewed concur the President has put behind him fears that Raila was hell-bent on upsetting his applecart midstream, hence his reluctance then to take on errant ministers.
The suspensions, like that of Ruto, his doubters say is a wider scheme of succession politics to muddy the waters for opponents of his preferred successor. Indeed, the action on Ruto has alienated further the Kalenjin community from the Prime Minister’s ODM party.
However, the present situation is different from last February when he quashed the suspension the Prime Minister had handed Ruto and Education Minister, Prof Sam Ongeri over maize and education financial scandals. There are reports the President is ready to sacrifice Wetangula and that Wetangula had tried to meet Raila to intercede for him.
Graft allegations and the bad publicity the country received after Sudanese President Omar Hassan el Bashir have forced the President to reconsider Wetang’ula stay in Cabinet.
Forced to do some juggling that included formation of a government of national unity during his first and second terms, fomenting trouble in rival parties, Kibaki who had hitherto taken to cooperating with Ruto unexpectedly slammed the door on the minister on Monday.
There is a convergence of opinion that there is stability in the Grand Coalition Government after the President and the Prime Minister campaigned successfully for the enactment of a new constitution, which in turn has quietened the supremacy wars in the Government.
Urgent questions
However, more urgent questions for the President is sourcing the funds for implementation of the new Constitution against a backdrop of the rising domestic debt, estimated to be Sh700 billion.
With Kenya international credibility undermined by persistent scandals in the Government, Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara says the Government must resort to external borrowing to finance its budget.
The Sh200 billion or so deficit has prompted the Government to raid the domestic financial market that has pushed the domestic debt to Sh700 billion.
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