British High Commissioner Edward Clay mounted a blistering attack on corruption in Kenya, warning that ”a gigantic looting spree” is hampering development in the east African country and jeopardizing donor support.
”It is outrageous to think that corruption accounts here and now in Kenya for about eight percent of Kenya’s GDP”, Clay said in a gloves-off speech to the British Business Association of Kenya on Tuesday.
Clay alleged that since a shaky alliance of opposition parties swept to power on an anti-corruption ticket in December 2002, the government has been involved in new corrupt deals worth some 15-billion shillings ($19-million).
”The continuation of old corruption inherited from the last government,” a chronically sticky-fingered regime led by former president Daniel arap Moi, ”might be worth 80-billion shillings ($100 million)” said Clay.
”One day we may wake up at the end of this gigantic looting spree to find Kenya’s potential is all behind us and it is a land of lost opportunity,” he added.
”The longer the government fumbles its response to corruption and tries to protect the high officers involved, the less likely the [Finance] Minster’s gamble on the donors’ geneorisity is likely to pay off,” he warned. — Sapa-AFP