The public is increasingly getting disillusioned over the government’s commitment to fighting corruption.
The campaigns move in fits and starts. Sometimes last year, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission launched an aggressive crusade to rein in the corrupt, leading to the arrest and prosecution of several top government officials, including Cabinet secretaries and principal secretaries.
But the fight has stalled. It is only recent weeks that we saw renewed efforts to seize corruption culprits — the latest being the arrest and arraigning in court of Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko over a Sh357 million corruption case.
Now, the DCI has launched investigation into the suspected loss of Sh38 billion in the Itare Dam in Nakuru County with a view to securing arrest and prosecutions.
Former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, previously in charge of the Water portfolio, are on the spotlight and face investigations over the suspected multibillion-shilling scandal.
Mr Rotich and his former Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge already face criminal charges over the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal.
While we acknowledge the new effort, doubts abound over the outcomes as there is scepticism over the government’s commitment to ending the vice.
This is because graft cases never progress. Several top officials have been seized and arraigned over corruption but none has been convicted.
Nobody has been jailed or the proceeds of graft seized and returned to the public. Merely investigating, arresting and charging individuals in court is not enough. In fact, it has become a circus.
Various explanations have been proffered for the paralysis. For one, the Executive and the prosecution accuse the courts of stalling cases by giving spurious injunctions to the accused, hence derailing the purge.
But the Judiciary, particularly Chief Justice David Maraga, has on several occasions repulsed the accusations, arguing that the problem is with the prosecution.
He cites hollow corruption cases that lack watertight evidence to force penalties. Into the mix is political interference.
Whatever the case, the citizens are peeved by the inertia. Worse, pledges by political leadership are vacuous.
Summoning two ministers and other top government officials for investigation over the Itare Dam is not enough.
What is critical is thorough investigations to secure incontrovertible evidence to sustain a charge and conviction in court.
At the same time, the DCI, EACC and Director of Public Prosecution should follow up all pending corruption cases and push for their conclusion.
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