Kenya is taking seriously the political message behind the United States move to suspend $2,5-million in funding for anti-corruption work in the country, Minister of Justice Kiraitu Murungi said on Wednesday.
Murungi was reacting to the announcement by US ambassador William Bellamy on Tuesday that his government is freezing support to Kenya’s anti-corruption work, including efforts to set up a serious-fraud investigation unit and the work of the ethics and governance department.
The move came one day after presidential anti-corruption adviser John Githongo resigned, reportedly because he was frustrated by lack of political will to take decisive action against senior government officials accused of corruption.
”It is a strong message that the US is sending to the country … It is a message that we are taking seriously,” Murungi said. ”We really want to take action, we don’t want to be pushed to it.”
He added, however, that the fight against corruption is essentially a Kenyan affair that should be led by its government — and not by diplomats, donors or foreigners.
An anti-corruption coalition said on Tuesday that Githongo’s resignation ”sounds the death knell” on the government’s fight against corruption.
Twenty organisations signed the statement, including human rights groups, Kenya’s main manufacturers’ association and the Kenya chapter of the anti-graft lobby group Transparency International.
The groups may withdraw from reform programmes they are working on with the government and call on citizens to withhold taxes if President Mwai Kibaki does not fire Cabinet ministers allegedly involved in corrupt deals, they said.
Murungi said the fight against corruption has just begun and will be ”bloody” and ”bruising”.
He said that he expects those who benefit from corruption will use violence, just like organised crime groups reacted to government crackdowns in Italy.
”We should not forget that this country [Kenya] has been one of the most corrupt countries in the world,” Murungi said.
He also sought to offset the political blow the government suffered from Githongo’s resignation.
”We cannot fight corruption by running away from it. We cannot give up the fight, however difficult it is,” Murungi said.
”Networks of corruption are deeply entrenched in our system … It is not possible, therefore, to fight corruption effectively with one sweep.”
Kibaki took over after winning December 2002 elections on pledges to clean up corruption that become endemic under the 24-year rule of former president Daniel arap Moi.
British High Commissioner Edward Clay said last week that he recently presented Kibaki with a file on 20 corrupt government deals worth more than $192-million, which showed high-level graft continues.
Most of those cases are related to security procurement in the president’s office that also runs the Department of Defence, Murungi said.
Eight Western embassies issued a statement saying that Githongo’s resignation seriously damaged the government’s anti-graft credentials. The US joined Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland in signing. — Sapa-AP