Here is my take on the State of the Nation address delivered by President Uhuru Kenyatta before the National Assembly last Thursday.
I don’t agree with an anti-corruption strategy that puts too much emphasis on “due process” and institutions investigating corruption must walk the narrow and rigid path defined by the arcane clichés lawyers like mouthing — such as “presumption of innocence” — prosecutions based on solid evidence.
Indeed, the reason the Kenyatta administration has not achieved much success with punishing corruption, and has recently resorted to the lazy stunt of heaping blame on the Judiciary, is that it is following the narrow and rigid punishment model that is obsessed with taking the corrupt to jail.
Jailing corrupt public officials can serve as a big deterrent against the vice.
But since we have been unable to punish the corrupt and get to closure quickly through prosecutions and courts, is it not just sensible that we should now change tact and come up with a more robust punishment model catering for more types of sanctions, including sackings, profiling, naming, shaming, barring from public office and asset recoveries.
Nairobi’s rumour mills have lately been abuzz with stories about how this and that Chinese contractor is building a block of flats or mansion for a Cabinet secretary in Kileleshwa or Lavington.
Yet our anti-corruption institutions must follow the narrow paths of “due process” and “presumption of innocence” when they are yet to muster the capacity to lift the veil behind these complex transactions to unearth evidence and prove that public officials are living lifestyles way beyond their means.
Grand corruption is basically about politics. We must embrace a system where appointing authorities are allowed powers to flex muscles and to fire public officials suspected or exposed in the press to have been engaged in graft.
After all, most public officials serve at the mercy of the President of the Republic. Just fire some of those blokes.
Consider the following statistics that came out in President Kenyatta’s address.
For the first time in the country, eight Cabinet secretaries and eight principal secretaries have been made to step aside to pave the way for investigations of corrupt activities.
Seven current and former governors and over 30 CEOs of State corporations are under active investigation or prosecutions.
These statistics left out the huge number of chief officers and members of county assemblies facing graft investigations and prosecutions.
If we insist on following the punishment model that puts too much emphasis on prosecutions and jailing of suspects — we will soon find ourselves without prison space.
Let us not judge the anti-corruption crusade by the number of court convictions only.
In the long run, what will matter is whether we manage to reform the dysfunctional political system we have been operating with.
We live in a society where grand corruption is not only systemic but where what makes the difference between a successful and unsuccessful politician is the corruptly acquired loads of cash and patronage resources he is able to display in public and to unleash on unwitting peasants.
Still, I think the biggest omission in last week’s State of the Nation address was the President’s failure to admit — even remotely — that things aren’t looking too bright for the economy.
He made no mention of the ongoing drought and acute food insecurity afflicting hundreds of thousands of citizens.
The President made no mention of the precarious national debt situation that led no less a body than the IMF to declare Kenya as facing a high risk of debt distress.
With the Eurobond and syndicated debts that were contracted by the country in the last few years about to mature, we will be forced to take on new debt to repay old debts.
Debt-financed expenditure has allowed Kenya to keep infrastructure spending at very high levels.
Although sluggish performance of the private sector is captured in official statistics, the evidence is out there for all to see. The rising number of listed companies that are issuing profit warnings is one example.
The fact that the Kenya Revenue Authority is struggling to meet targets set by the Treasury is another.
The high number of banks operating below minimum capital requirements, a good number below regulatory liquidity requirements, is another sign of stress in segments of the sector.
We need to start seeing substantial investment in new plants and machinery, a vibrant rise in agricultural output and a more substantial recovery in tourism.
We must start spending less on salaries and wages of civil servants and put more money in roads, railways, ports, water and education.
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