Let Kinoti do his work, funeral attacks on graft war won't help - Uhuru

Agencies mandated with fighting corruption have the capacity to do their job, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

He said the war on corruption will continue in earnest and 'funeral pronouncements' by those opposed to it will not deter the resolve.

"This war on corruption will not be won at funerals, this war will be won by the use of agencies given the mandate to do the job," Uhuru said.

"Recently someone said I stole something. I'm telling him to visit Karura Forest, DCI offices are there. But this issue of lamenting at funerals, the dead person will not help you," a visibly angry Uhuru said.

He spoke on Tuesday during the official opening of the 6th Devolution Conference at Kirinyaga University.

On Sunday, Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi accused Uhuru and ODM boss Raila Odinga of using the handshake and the war on graft to fix 2022 politics.

He alleged that the duo is using the handshake to block Deputy President William Ruto from ascending to power after the President's term ends.

"We are tired and you will get what you are looking for soon. Ruto has his own people and they are not foolish. Ruto has been patient enough," Sudi said.

The MP further claimed that DCI George Kinoti is being used to target innocent people in the war on graft.

Sudi said Uhuru and Raila "should not pretend to be holy" as they had a hand in the intended take over of the JKIA by Kenya Airways.

"You have caused the sacking of so many innocent people and their cries will not go free. If you don't want certain people just tell them to resign instead of faking graft charges," he said.

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But Uhuru challenged him to take whatever evidence he has against him to the DCI.

"What do you have to fear? Even if you are taken to court, you have a right to a lawyer to defend you for your innocence," Uhuru said.

"Kupiga piga maneno inasaidia nani?" he posed. (Endless talking helps no one).

The President further said it's time county governments stopped wastage of resources and slashed their budgets on recurrent expenditure.

He said as it currently stands, governments are spending 52 per cent of the total revenue on salaries, 30 per cent on recurrent expenditure and only 20 per cent on development projects.

"Surely there is something wrong in that equation," Uhuru said.

He gave the example of a county he did not mention that has a budget allocation of nine billion but uses six billion on paying six thousand staff.

"Three billion shillings is what is left to cater for the needs of over two million residents," Uhuru said. "Is that correct?" he posed.

Yet another county, he said, uses Sh600 million to oversight Sh800 million.

Uhuru said he agreed with other leaders on Monday that there is a need for a national conference on the issue to engage on policies and guidelines on revenue utilization in both the national and county governments.

"We will arrange and invite people from all sectors so that we discuss how we can have more funds going to the people and not into people's pockets," Uhuru said.

He said he was confident that devolution was working going by the way development had reached even the small farmers.

"I have seen coffee farmers here in Kirinyaga are doing fine, they have even gotten a market in America for their produce. The same with Makueni people with their mango juice factory," Uhuru said.

He urged all Kenyans to focus on work.

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