Deputy President William Ruto has claimed that Kenya could have lost nearly half a trillion shillings in the last ten years to ‘budgeted corruption’ run by opaque institutions.
The DP on Thursday told Americans that the war on corruption in Kenya is subjective and merely a political tool targeting opponents to choreograph the next dispensation.
Ruto, who spoke at a US-based think tank, said the country has serious accountability challenges and vowed to ruthlessly fight graft if he wins the presidency in August.
“The other issue is budgeted corruption. Today you have close to Sh100 billion budgeted every year that has no oversight in opaque institutions,” Ruto said.
“That amount has grown between four and fivefold in the last ten years.”
He spoke at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonpartisan international affairs think tank with centres in Washington D.C.
He went on, “When you have accountability problems, where you have oversight challenges, the more money you put in opaque institutions the greater the corruption.”
The DP’s remarks mean President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration has allocated billions to institutions whose operations are shrouded in secrecy, aiding corruption.
“It is our position that we should get out to make sure that every coin is accounted for,” the DP said during the interview.
This was the first time that Ruto openly spoke about his anti-corruption strategy, a topic he has always dodged while in Kenya.
But on Thursday, Ruto appeared to heap blame on the Office of the President for systematically weakening the independent institutions to drive a subjective anti-graft war against opponents.
“Today, all criminal investigations, investigations of corruption are carried out by institutions that depend on the Office of the President to give them the money,” he said.
“The law provides that these institutions should have their own financial independence complete with their accounting officers and they don’t have to depend on the Office of the President or any other office to prosecute corruption matters.”
Ruto named the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the National Police Service as some of the institutions that have been captured.
The DP regretted that instead of the government building the capacity of independent institutions, some elements were deliberately designing to weaken the institutions to prosecute a political agenda.
“Speaking about integrity, our position and my personal position is that we must have an accountable government, we must have accountable public officials and that accountability must be built around institutions,” he said
“It is not for me to decide that Ken or Zainab is corrupt but the moment it is subjective and personalised, it runs the risk of being used as a political tool against your competitors as it has been done in Kenya.”
When asked a direct question about his integrity, the DP blamed his opponents for branding him corrupt because he is the country’s presidential election frontrunner.
“I am not just a candidate but probably the leading candidate in this election. It’s not by default but because I have a track record that the people of Kenya know, feel and associate with,” he said.
“My team and I have a credible plan that is resonating with the people of Kenya. When you are in that pivotal position, you won’t miss people who will say things about you, that is the nature of politics.”
The DP said that the bigger political agenda had also affected the Judiciary.
The institution, he said, has been denied resources due to it constitutionally by government failure to operationalise the Judiciary Fund.
“Immediately we come into office we will operationalise the Judiciary Fund, which is in the constitution but has deliberately not been operationalised,” Ruto said.
“This is because there are people who want to continue using the war against corruption as a political tool against their opponents.”
The DP said operationalising the fund will give the Judiciary the resources to hire enough personnel, and build the software through training of staff to ensure quick dispensation of justice.
“For your information it takes anywhere between 10 and 15 years to prosecute one corruption case,” the DP said, a day after he asked the international community to intervene and stop rigging in the August polls.
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