We must deal firmly with corruption. Agencies charged with the responsibility must up their game and sustain the current tempo. It should not be a temporary public relations exercise.
Corruption has been in the news lately. The scale of the scandals is alarming. A friend joked that we have adopted a billion shillings as our currency of trade. This was in response to the fact that the bulk of the reported scandals run into billions of shillings.
In response, the new Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has already charged several suspects in court in a renewed anti-corruption fight. In the process, several arguments have been raised in public discourse.
The fight against corruption requires political will. As long as political leadership only plays lip service to elimination of graft all efforts shall come to naught. In the past, there would by now be political rallies discussing corruption and issuing emptying rhetoric. There would also be rallying calls for community mobilization.
Secondly, institutions involved in the fight against corruption invariably work at cross purposes. This not only delays but also eventually end up frustrating any initiatives to deal with graft in the country. Each institution conveniently blames the other.
The recent events also raise debate about the place and performance of independent institutions. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was sharing his experience working in government. He made a statement which at first sight sounded strange. In his view the best corruption investigations are undertaken by the police. All they require is political will.
The above statement leads me to question the place of the ethics and anti-corruption commission in the fight against corruption. It is close to two decades since the institution was established. Then it cam with a lot of promise.
A promise to avoid the obstacles to successful prosecutions of corruption suspects. The history of the anti-corruption agency is checkered. It is most remembered for frequent change of names and leadership than for any contribution to the anti-corruption fight.
In light of recent events where the agency by its own public admission was sidestepped in the NYS investigations and eventual prosecutions, time is ripe to objectively evaluate the relevance of the EACC.
Should it really continue existing or should it be disbanded? In case it is to exist, we must bite the bullet and clarify its role. Maybe leave it only with public education and prevention functions and take the investigation functions to the police.
The discussion about EACC should extend to a review of all constitutional commissions. The rationale for their establishment were very noble, being to sidestep the dysfunctional nature of numerous government agencies.
Some of these bodies have unfortunately continued with the same problems that the agencies that performed their functions before were known for. The country may have to admit that they may have correctly diagnosed the problem but the prescribed solutions may not be fully effective in the Kenyan context.
The second is the presumption of innocence versus the pubic desire to se heads roll. In reality the public are entitled to be angry about the slow and ineffective manner in which the fight against corruption has been conducted.
Against that background there is public desire to see the Big Fish being held culpable for what is a threat to the country’s economy or as Chief Magistrate Ogoti of the anti-corruption case stated a threat to peace and national security. In the process though we must never forget that the drive to deal with corruption must neither be politicized nor be turned into mob lynching.
At the heart of our constitutional democracy is the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens. A democracy that practices the rule of law such as ours holds true to a basic but foundational principle of law that one is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The problem in the past ahs been the delay and lack of results in the process of prosecuting and punishing corruption suspects. The end result is many are let to go after being arrested.
In such instances, a blame game arises amongst the agencies involved in the chain from police, EACC, prosecution and the Judiciary. This is the blame game that the current initiatives seek to stop.
This is a positive development. But we must avoid trampling on rights of citizens in the zeal to fight corruption. Not everybody who is arrested as a suspect is guilty of corruption. The guarantee of our criminal justice system must remain. That guarantee enables every suspect to have a fair trial and eventually be judged based on evidence.
We must deal firmly with corruption. Agencies charged with the responsibility must up their game and sustain the current tempo. It should not be a temporary public relations exercise.
In the process though, we have to be careful to avoid turning the drive into mob lynching. One where rule of law does not matter. This will be as tragic as the past inaction.
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