MPs from Kenya’s ruling party on Wednesday announced that they would push for a vote of no confidence in the president, a critical test of the government, which is under concerted pressure from western powers over its failure to fight corruption.
Despite being elected on an anti-graft platform in 2003, the administration has been engulfed by allegations of sleaze.
The latest row was partly provoked by the British high commissioner, Edward Clay, whose strident attacks culminated earlier this month in a claim that there was ”massive looting” of public funds.
Kenyan ministers responded by accusing Clay of being ”an incorrigible liar” and an ”enemy of the government”.
On Monday the Lands Minister, Amos Kimunya, called for the arrest of the British envoy for allegedly using leaked government files as the basis for his attack.
”The fact is that what [Clay] says about corruption is based on information extracted from government investigation files … information that is corruptly obtained. He should be taken in for corruption,” said Kimunya.
A group of Kenyan MPs, led by deputy government whip Mutinda Mutiso, now plans a vote of no confidence in President Mwai Kibaki, who stands accused of failing to control his Cabinet.
They claim that the ministerial call for Clay to be arrested was proof enough that the diplomat had told the truth.
”The question here is about the validity and accuracy of the documents,” said Mutiso. ”[The land minister’s] remarks confirm the existence of mega-corruption by a section of Cabinet ministers.”
Ministers linked with alleged corruption should step aside during inquiries, the MPs said.
Clay’s attack on sleaze was backed by a dossier of 20 allegedly corrupt public procurement deals, which the envoy said needed ”full and transparent investigation”.
Top of the list, later leaked to a Kenyan newspaper, sits the Anglo Leasing affair, which focuses on plans for a $38-million passport computer system.
The case involves what the government described as an ”unsolicited” proposal from a company called Anglo Leasing and Finance, which was paid a ”commitment fee” of more than $1 145 680.
The firm has denied any wrongdoing and repaid the fee.
In a preliminary hearing the high court in Nairobi heard that the government negotiated a deal with Anglo Leasing and Finance, which was to subcontract the work to a French firm, at a cost of â,¬31,8-million plus a 3% commitment fee. However, the French company had already offered the government a direct price of â,¬6-million.
As well as attacking Clay, the Kenyan government has sought to shore up its own credibility with a renewed crackdown on corruption. Three senior civil servants supposedly involved in the Anglo Leasing affair were arrested and charged last week. President Kibaki also reshuffled his Cabinet last week in an effort to regain public trust, but he has made no move as yet to sack ministers for sleaze.
The government has been accused of scapegoating civil servants to protect politicians.
The crisis has prompted open feuding within the cabinet, with Raila Odinga, the Roads Minister, calling for corrupt colleagues to be sacked.
Odinga claimed that the reshuffling of suspect ministers ”is like saying to them: You have eaten enough from this side, now go and eat from the other side”.
He added: ”A minister cannot say he was misled by his permanent secretary. He should go if the PS goes.”
Kenya’s anti-corruption tsar, John Githongo, who was regarded as one of the most competent and honest men in the Kibaki administration, resigned his post two weeks ago, just days after Clay’s last speech.
His departure led donors to conclude that the fight against corruption had stalled. The United States and Germany both cut aid intended for anti-corruption programmes.
The early months of the Kibaki government witnessed much progress in Kenya, with the introduction of universal and free primary education and a clean-up of the judiciary.
But economic growth remains poor and the re-emergence of high-level corruption has prompted alarm among donors and the Kenyan public.
Britain, which is the biggest foreign investor in Kenya, regards the resurgence of graft as a major threat to achieving economic and social reform.
What envoy said
”Evidently the practitioners now in government have the arrogance, greed and perhaps a desperate sense of panic to lead them to eat like gluttons.
”They may expect we shall not see, or notice, or will forgive them a bit of gluttony because they profess to like Oxfam lunches. But they can hardly expect us not to care when their gluttony causes them to vomit all over our shoes.”
Edward Clay, July 2004
”There is lots of whitewash covering those displeasing shoes, but no denial that underneath, right enough, it’s still there, that unpleasing substance. Not just on the shoes of the donors, incidentally, but also all over the shoes of Kenyans … and the feet of those who can’t afford shoes.”
February 2005
”I got some criticism for the language I used back in July last year. Looking back, I regret three things: not speaking out much earlier; underestimating the scale of the looting afoot; and the moderation of the language I used then: that was clearly inexcusably polite in relation to what we see going on.”
February 2005
What others said
”His job is not like that of a comedian. He has abused us and we are telling him to explain the facts of the case or else he should shut up.”
Chirau Ali Mwakwere, foreign minister, July 2004
”[Clay] was talking nonsense. I think he had taken one too many. The language was rude and maybe that is the message he has been given by his government. He is projecting the image of his country very badly by insulting and accusing individual leaders without substantiation.”
Chirau Ali Mwakwere, February 2005
”Sir Edward Clay has just behaved as an enemy of this government … What he is saying is not very new; a lot of corruption … took place during the previous regime. We did not get a word about it from the British high commission.”
Kiraitu Murungi, justice minister, February 2005
”The fact is that what he says about corruption is based on … information that is corruptly obtained. He should be ‘taken in’ for corruption. He uses information … released unofficially and then says he is a crusader against corruption.”
Amos Kimunya, lands minister, February 2005 – Guardian Unlimited Â