Kenya: Karua Says Uhuru Has Failed in Tackling Corruption

While President Uhuru Kenyatta even set prosecution timelines in the scandal when it was unearthed last year, no one has been taken to court.

“The reluctance to face the monster of corruption head-on and to demonstrate commitment to addressing it in his final year together with an official display of impunity in the face of court orders likely to be a blur on Uhuru’s legacy,” Karua said.

On Kenyatta’s failure to respect court orders and resorting to appeals every time decisions are made, Karua said, “Insistence on a non-existent constitutional moment in the wake of two court rulings and a pending appeal in the Appeal court again demonstrate disdain for courts and the rule of law.”

President Kenyatta recently filed an appeal at the Supreme Court to challenge a Court of Appeal decision that agreed with a lower court that the constitutional amendment bid through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) is null and void.

Kenyatta and his administration has also challenged various other court rulings, often failing to obey court decisions.

The former Constitutional Affairs minister accused the President of undermining the Constitution by gagging his rivals and asked Kenyans to rise up against authoritarian leadership.

Karua accused the Head of State of prioritizing personal interests in the 2022 succession politics at the expense of pressing issues facing millions of Kenyans including job losses and a bad economy.

“Failure to capture the suffering of the majority in an economy literally growing in the pockets of a privileged few, while a majority can hardly afford the basics casts the government out of touch with the people,” she stated.