War against graft bearing fruit

The war against corruption will not be won with convictions alone. It will require change of attitude, upping moral standards and the fear of God.

The expectations of Kenyans have been a little delayed by the tedious legal processes and the not-so-impressive performances of the Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti and Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji. But the fruits of the government’s anti-graft onslaught are emerging.

What would you do if you found an extra Sh2 million in your bank account? Many Kenyans who find such a windfall would rush to their trusted friends for advice.

Friends will tell you to move the money to other accounts to gain interest, to withdraw and invest it or to even donate to charity.

A colleague I posed this question to said he said he would pray that no one discovers the erroneous transaction, checking his account balance often to confirm the status of his ‘heaven-sent pension’.

Such a response explains why Ms Emily Nyambura, an entrepreneur, has left tongues wagging with her remarkable reaction after being subjected to this test. Nyambura had Sh3.6 million recently deposited in her bank account by the National Youth Service (NYS) for no work done.

Ms Nyambura first received Sh1.8 million in December last year but instructed her bank to reverse the payment. She had the Sh1.8 million she had reversed paid into her account once again in February.

But She resisted temptation and reported the matter to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, which is now probing possible embezzlement of public funds by NYS officials.

She revealed that she had earlier only applied for a tender to supply bread to NYS but was unsuccessful.

While Nyambura deserves to be congratulated for her honesty, her reaction demonstrates one of the greatest successes of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s fight against graft.  

While no single high-profile looter of public resources has been jailed despite the many cases in court, the arrests, prosecution and general shaming of suspects has sent shockwaves countrywide and prevented theft in public offices.

The agony of wealthy suspects who are spending sleepless nights after having their assets seized and accounts frozen, is today making Kenyans think twice before taking part in corrupt deals.

Ms Nyambura’s story was more or less a replica of the distressed Ngirita family fairy tale.

Anne Ngirita had Sh59 million fraudulently deposited in her account from the NYS despite having never tendered to supply goods and services to the government.

All she did was walk to NYS headquarters in Nairobi and request a procurement officer to allow her to supply goods -and then got paid.

Her entire family is now paying dearly for such transactions.  Anne’s sister Phyllis Ngirita recently wailed outside a courtroom, detailing how her son is turning into ‘a chokoraa’ (street child) who cannot speak German. The government has made corruption a painful undertaking. It is a fact even top commercial banks can now attest to this.

Last week, five leading banks opted to pay the DPP a total of Sh385 million to save their executives from criminal prosecution over NYS dealings.

The banks have been warned that the prosecution deal will be terminated if they seek insurance compensation for the fines.

This is a huge blow for the lenders and it is highly unlikely the institutions will in future entertain suspicious transactions. Without the banks, corruption cartels will be left without a medium to transfer money from state coffers.

This is win for the State in the war against graft. Kenyans must rally behind the President and resist any attempts to politicise efforts to tame graft. 

Mr Kiplagat comments on social, economic on political affairs