Rein in politicians subverting graft war

Corruption dominated public debate this week with the decibels rising following revelations of a suspected loss of billions of shillings in dams’ construction in various parts of the country. That is hardly surprising. For the term of the current administration, corruption has been an enduring theme. The vice has been taken to another level. It was not until the shake-up at the criminal investigations and public prosecution offices sometimes last year that the tide changed.

But the greatest impediment to the war against corruption is politics. In the past few days, a group of politicians have come up aggressively to jettison all efforts to investigate and prosecute suspected cases of graft in dam projects. Investigative and prosecuting authorities are being vilified in attempt to intimidate and coerce them to drop the cases and trash whatever they are doing. All that is being done in the name of succession politics.

It is particularly revolting when individuals in government or the ruling party fight and demonise State agencies; linking them with witch-hunt when they are simply doing their work and in the public interest. Without singularity of purpose, the government will definitely lose the war. But that is not acceptable. Kenyans are united in their conviction that corruption, fraud, pilferage and waste in government must end. Taxes must be put into proper use. Development projects have to be completed on time and within realistic budgets. Anything to the contrary spells doom for the country.

As we have argued several times before, corruption is never about communities, political parties or regions. It is about selfish individuals crafting insidious designs to loot from public coffers. Such individuals, working in cahoots with politicians, cannot turn around and play the victim card to extricate themselves from the mess they create in the economy through shameless looting.

The challenge for the Director of Criminal Investigations and the Director of Public Prosecutions is to conduct their inquiries thoroughly and meticulously and assemble concrete evidence to sustain court action. On this trajectory, they must not be frightened or distracted by political noises. Of concern is that many corruption cases tumble in court either because of lack of evidence arising from poor investigations or manipulation of the judicial processes to serve interest of the well-heeled individuals.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has repeatedly declared intention to nail down the corrupt and end the iniquity. To that extent, he must rein in those top officials either in government or ruling party undermining the purge. Politicians should stop meddling in the campaign against graft.