A few days ago, Chief of Staff and Head of Public service Felix Koskei met Members of the National Assembly in Mombasa where he again threw down the gauntlet and vowed that civil servants who engage in corrupt dealings will not be spared. Unparalleled, this was the first meeting held between the Executive Office of the President and Parliamentary Audit Committees.
“President Ruto’s administration considers corruption to be the biggest impediment to the achievement of our national goals and aspirations”, he stated to the legislators -a message he has sustained since the Ruto government was formed.
In the busy political atmosphere that Kenya constantly sustains, Mr. Koskei is focusing on the fight against corruption in a needle-like manner. He is dedicatedly keeping this redemptive work it in frame and mobilizing productive support.
Appreciating the extent of the problem which he has estimated to be of large scale, is a strong message that must be turning heads. Shunning distractions and diversions is going to be useful in facing the stumbling blocks such as a negative public attitude, dicey legal structures and slow judicial processes, and financial limitations.
The Civil Service boss being firm and immovable on the position that government accounting officers must appear before parliamentary committees means there is nowhere to run for those who violate laid down the procedures.
“Accounting officers should appear before you fully prepared and the perennial excuses of lack of documentation witnessed historically should not be tolerated. Incidences of ignoring parliamentary summons should be treated as a breach of the Constitution and should therefore attract the appropriate sanctions within the legal parameters,” he told them.
Ordinarily, a cat and mouse game will be played by unscrupulous officers evading scrutiny by parliamentary committees and mostly individuals in the Executive will have be protecting the officers who never get held responsible for their dishonest roles.
During Koskei’s engagement with envoys in Nairobi last Wednesday, he highlighted the need to strengthen the prevention capacity of the Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission as a priority. This move is quite critical because what follows after graft is unearthed is a fruitless damage control and futile attempts mostly to try and hold people responsible.
As a result, many Kenyans and even leaders have over the years developed a fatalistic or defeatist attitude towards corruption. Being proactive towards the vice is more circumspective and strategic, after all, losing and going after lost precious funds involves the use of further valuable resources in the lengthy and time-consuming processes where crooks always prevail.
Claims about a ‘war on corruption’ by past regimes has been rhetorical, lackluster and even had pretentious champions. It is the reason that many Kenyans widely do not have a wee bit faith or trust that any government can genuinely have eyes on the ball with many holding that corruption in Kenya can never end.
Past behaviour of our Executives has been uninspiring, with many caught with fingers in the cookie jar but maneuvering their way out with impunity or calculatedly through the legal processes. Ignorance has indeed been perilous in attempts to fight corruption in Kenya because government institutions cannot be help responsible.
As Koskei indicated as he met the legislators, conjecture and assumptions have been the basis of understanding corruption in the Kenyan system. There has been a need for scientific research to help understand corruption in Kenya thoroughly.
Koskei mentioned to the legislators he met, that Parliamentary Audit Committee reports issued from time to time provide a critical tool for monitoring and evaluation as well as a platform for engagement with Parliament and ministries, government departments and agencies.
This kind of information should be leveraged to avoid shadow boxing. Attempting to change practices without concrete knowledge is futile. It should be possible to publish case studies detailing the dynamics of successful or unsuccessful anti-corruption operations.
The construction zone is a sensitive area, and it might thus be important for the government to develop certain devices against corruption in stealth mode. It is useful to avoid giving corrupt people ammunition in the form of information about plans to act on corruption. Sometimes, this is similar to handing your enemy a piece on the chessboard as they use it to counteract the plans.
Cartels and individuals involved in corruption are powerful, crafty and utilise information to the disadvantage of government, which forms the bedrock of their survival despite these economic crimes they commit. The truth being subtle and takes time to unravel, yet research can help a great deal in saving time because clear indicators will be established going forward.
As I suggested on this column before, it is necessary to employ technology effectively to set traps for graft undertakings. It is possible to adopt monitoring and evaluation systems which can help to monitor progress. The zeal that the executive Office of the President is demonstrating is a good sign as long as their words are rooted in honesty, because it is until a significant number of culprits are caught that Kenyans will begin to gain confidence in our systems again. There will obviously be antagonism and attacks against those going out full throttle against corruption, therefore Ruto’s administration must be ready for the long haul.
Justice should be the crown Jewel in the hands of those fighting corruption. For a long time, many renown corrupt individuals have stayed clean like a shadow on the ground because they never get caught. If indeed it is lacunas in the law which make this possible, then parliament should review the laws and have amendments effected to plug this. With the majority in both houses of parliament, the ruling party has opportunity to sort out this problem decisively.
Ensuring proper implementation of government projects is another effective way of ensuring progress. Like Koskei observed a while back, there are many white elephant projects across the country, projects existing only in the books where funds were allocated, but nonexistent on the ground.
This a terrible level of corruption and a working government must ensure that all projects financed by the taxpayer are delivered at high standards and in or on time. Government projects should not be mystifyingly expensive, if Kenya is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Koskei’s focus on corruption might be the brightest form of fire in the darkest coldest night, especially if action follows with focus on the individual civil servant.