The Cabinet reshuffle by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in response to a recent outcry over corruption is ”completely unsatisfactory”, the country’s leading anti-graft watchdog said on Tuesday.
No ministers were fired in the Monday reshuffle. Instead, the most noticeable change in the Cabinet line-up is that former security minister Chris Murungaru has been demoted to the transport ministry.
Many of the recent corruption scandals in Kenya have centred on the ministry headed by Murungaru.
The new Minister of Security is John Michuki (75), a close confidante of the president, who rose in public approval when he as transport minister enforced strict regulations on the matatu (public minibus) business in Kenya.
”This is an extremely weak response. A few ministers were moved around. It makes a mockery of Kenyans concerns [over corruption],” said Gladwell Otieno, head of the Kenyan chapter of Transparency International.
The ministry of defence, another home of several alleged shady deals, has been put directly under the Office of the President.
But, wrote The Standard newspaper, ”the political bloodbath that had been expected in the wake of pressure from within and without Kenya was not to be”.
”Instead, a slap on the wrist is all Murungaru got, despite his ministry being at the centre of almost every embarrassing scandal that has rocked this government.”
”This is a completely unsatisfactory response to the pressure of the last weeks and it shows there is absolutely no political will to do anything [to fight corruption],” said Otieno.
Kibaki, who came to power two years ago on an anti-corruption platform, has been accused of not trying hard enough to root out graft in one of the world’s most corrupt countries.
Last week, Kenya’s top anti-corruption official resigned, saying he could no longer serve his government.
The British high commissioner in the country has launched fierce attacks on the government over its failure to combat grand corruption, and the United States ambassador, William Bellamy, followed suit last week, announcing the suspension of an anti-graft aid package to the country.
”We are eager to work with Kenya to improve governance — but we cannot be helpful when all the evidence suggests that government isn’t serious or, worse, that government is the source of the problem,” Bellamy said. — Sapa-DPA