Minister, PS leave office to pave way for graft probe

Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula and Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi on Wednesday stepped down from their positions to pave way for investigations into alleged embassy scandals in the latest indication that the new Constitution has stimulated the fight against corruption.

Despite the two maintaining their innocence over the allegations of irregularities in the purchase of Kenyan embassies, land and other property in Belgium, Egypt, Japan, Nigeria and Pakistan, a report by the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations said Kenyan taxpayers might have lost over Sh1.1 billion in acquiring the land to build a new embassy in Tokyo.

The committee accused Mr Wetangula of deliberately misinforming Kenyans about the transactions.

President Kibaki accepted the resignations with an order that all government departments speedily conclude any pending cases of corruption.

Public funds

“We must and will firmly and systematically deal with issues of corruption. “It is high time people changed attitude and became satisfied with their rightful salaries and wages instead of misappropriating public funds,” said the President while opening the new Prime Minister’s office along Harambee Avenue.

The resignations gave momentum to the ongoing fight against graft that has this week seen two ministers - Mr Wetangula and former Higher Education minister William Ruto - leave office.

Nairobi Mayor Geophrey Majiwa was on Tuesday charged in court over the Sh284 million cemetery scandal.

The actions coincided with a Transparency International report that showed the international community perceived Kenya as being more corrupt this year than last year.

Kenya was ranked at position 154, seven places lower than last year, out of the 178 countries that were surveyed.

The poor ranking was attributed to backlog of corruption cases detected nearly two decades ago and the emergence of fresh ones, said TI Kenya executive Director Samuel Kimeu.

Corruption is estimated to have cost the economy Sh200 billion over the last two decades.

Business leaders and anti-corruption crusaders believe Kenya’s fight against graft had suffered near paralysis due to a faltering political commitment and misuse of court process to frustrate justice. But this perception seems to be changing.

“There seems to be a fervent political will to fight corruption under the high ethical standards set for public office holders in the new Constitution, ” said Dr Adams Oloo, a political scientist at the University of Nairobi.

Although laws against corruption have been there for years, Dr Oloo said the new Constitution had strengthened institutions like the Kenya Anti-Corruption to tackle graft while President Kibaki’s quest for a strong legacy had boosted anti-graft efforts.

Despite the high profile resignations, slow recovery of stolen public assets has left the public and sceptical of the anti graft war whose profile has been raised by the appointment of orator PLO Lumumba to head KACC.

Dr Lumumba’s tenure started with a media glare on arrests of perpetrators of backstreet economic crimes such as policemen taking bribes at roadblocks and a councillor being influenced to expedite land leases at City Hall.

On the preventive front, Dr Lumumba has teamed up with business lobbies to help them develop a code of ethics for their members.

That has upped the pressure on public figures to back the talk on corruption with action, especially in cases where their integrity has been cast into doubt.

“I have decided to voluntarily step aside from the conduct and responsibilities of the ministry in order to allow the competent government organs to fully and without impediment investigate all matters of concern raised in the report,” Mr Mwangi – who resigned a few hours before Mr Wetangula said in a statement.

Mr Wetangula denied any personal wrongdoing and knowledge of some of the report’s findings such as that embassy officials in Tokyo withdrew hundreds of millions of shillings in cash to pay for the land, something that is unusual in government transactions.

“The allegations of corruption in which I am implicated are not true and are at best fabrications,” Mr Wetangula, the Sirisia MP told reporters.

In the cemetery scandal, the City Hall is estimated to have lost up to Sh260 million when it purchased a piece of rocky land that was not suited for the intended use as a cemetery at the cost of Sh284 million.

An independent valuation showed the land was worth Sh24 million.

Mr Ruto was suspended after a court recommended that he and three others be prosecuted in a case in which the Kenya Pipeline lost Sh272 million in the sale of a plot which was part of the Ngong Forest.

Mr Ruto was charged with receiving Sh9.9 million saying he was in a position to sell the land.