Britain on Friday renewed corruption charges against Kenya, saying the drive to fight endemic graft in the east African country was ”evidently flawed” and devoid of ”political will”.
”The government’s resolve to permit zero torelance on corruption is evidently flawed,” British High Commissioner Edward Clay told a press conference in Nairobi, flanked by Kenyan finance and justice ministers David Mwiraria and Kiraitu Murungi.
In June, Clay said government ministers were outrightly corrupt, in a gloves-off speech in Nairobi to British businessmen, which drew diplomatic complaints from Nairobi.
”The old corrupt networks never went away. The operators of the networks continue in business. Too few have been prosecuted or disciplined for helping them to flourish,” he said on Friday.
”Too many continue to enjoy office even when its clear they are implicated,” he said.
Clay however commended Nairobi for setting up the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACA) and other bodies charged with probing incidents of graft.
”Without powerful political will and direction, these institutions will be impeded in their free, fearless and rigourous investigations and from taking action against the corruptors,” he explained.
Murungi rejected Clay’s claims saying President Mwai Kibaki was fully committed to the fight against corruption.
”There is a political will to fight graft in this country and it is our fundamental right because of the loss it has brought to this country… but the problem is much bigger than the high commissioner thinks,” Murungi added.
”We have reached a situation where the hunter becomes the hunted, (donors) should be helping us instead of pouring cold water,” said the minister.
”Corruption is a problem of both developing and developed countries,” he added.
The International Monetary Fund’s east Africa chief Godfrey Kalinga said the lender’s board would meet in October to decide whether to release the $35-million that it withheld in May owing to uncertainty over Nairobi’s commitment
to fight corruption. – Sapa-AFP