Corruption, Graft and Impunity

Kenya’s largest problems are unrestrained population growth that is doubling every 17 years, related unemployment of over 40%, and a government that is permeated with graft and corruption. 

Political corruption in Kenya is rampant at all levels of government and law enforcement.  In 2010, Kenya was ranked 154 out of 178 countries by the Corruption Perception Index.  There are articles in the papers every day about new instances of graft and embezzlement of government funds, and bribing of police officers, magistrates and witnesses in amounts ranging from $100 or less to millions of dollars.

The corruption is compounded by what the papers call “impunity,” essentially exemption from any punishment or accountability.  Over and over again those charged with crimes of corruption are acquitted by the courts in blatantly inadequate investigations and prosecutions, if they ever are charged at all.  The cases linger on for years while potential witnesses die, disappear or eventually recant their expected testimony.

The corruption has existed since Kenya gained its independence in 1963.  Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya’s first president, ruled from 1963 until he died in1978.  Although he did many wonderful things for his country, he also created an authoritarian government that is greatly divided among tribal lines and rife with patronage, favoritism and nepotism. 

Kenyatta allowed and encouraged public officials to use the power and influence of their offices to acquire great wealth.  His own family became one of the wealthiest and most powerful in Kenya. 

Those practices became even more entrenched during the reign of Daniel Arap Moi, who was president from 1978 to 2002.   As with the Kenyatta’s, Mr. Moi’s family and friends accumulated great wealth during their days of power.  Although implicated in many charges of corruption, some still ongoing today, Mr. Moi still lives in his opulent estate in the hills overlooking Kenya’s largest slum, Kibera.

Mwai Kibaki is Kenya’s current president, only its third since independence almost 50 years ago.  He campaigned on promises to end the endemic corruption and to improve Kenya’s dismal economy.  To his credit, Kenya’s economy did improve rather substantially in the early years of his leadership; the corruption, however, continues unabated.

Early in his first term, President Kibaki appointed a very well educated and capable Kenyan journalist, John Githango, as the Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics.  Mr. Githango quietly resigned from that position two years later amid reports of death threats when he apparently started to uncover ongoing corruption at the highest levels.  

At the same time, close friends of the president were implicated in multi-dollar scandals.  Two of his close allies who held Minister positions in the government were forced to resign because of their alleged involvement in corrupt transactions.  They were reinstated to the cabinet, however, even before the investigations were completed.

In the 2007 presidential elections, Kibaki claimed victory and had himself sworn in secretly before the electoral process even finished.  To this day, it is not clear who actually won the election, which included widespread bribery, vote buying, intimidation, ballot-stuffing and incompetent oversight.  The post election violence that resulted in the deaths of over 1300 Kenyans, the brutal rape and assault of hundreds of women and the displacement of 500,000 people from their homes remains the darkest hour in Kenya’s history as a republic.

Following the violence, Kenya was given the option either to set up a local tribunal in Kenya to investigate and charge those responsible for the violence, or to refer the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.  On two different occasions, the Kenyan Parliament refused to establish the local tribunal to deal with the matter, apparently on the mistaken belief that the ICC would take years to act.  The ICC prosecutor, Luis-Moreno Ocampo, however, quickly instigated an investigation when Kenya failed to do so on its own.

The ICC subsequently indicted 6 high ranking Kenyans in March 2011 for the crimes against humanity that occurred after the 2007 election (the “Ocampa Six”).  The hearings to establish if the prosecution has sufficient evidence to proceed are scheduled to begin in September.  Ironically, the same Kenyan politicians who refused to establish the local tribunal, insisting that the cases go to The Hague, are now arguing that the ICC should allow Kenya to create the very tribunal it previously rejected. 

The Ocampo Six include Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, the grandson of Kenya’s first president, and its Higher Education Minister, William Samoei Ruto.  Accompanied by a horde of Kenyan officials in a display of “support,” they left earlier this month for The Hague where the Ocampo Six officially were charged with crimes against humanity. 

In a process I can only call surrealistic, Kenyatta and Ruto returned to Kenya amidst great fanfare and celebration that included a huge gathering in which they were treated as heroes by a cheering throng (who reportedly were paid and fed to attend the rally).  In the meantime, the relatives and friends of those dead and maimed, and the hundreds of thousands of people still displaced from their homes, wait quietly and futilely for a hero of their own to pursue justice for them.

Last week, Mr. Ruto was acquitted in an unrelated Kenyan criminal case where he and others were charged with graft related to a sale of public land to a public company several years ago.  The court dismissed the case for “lack of evidence,” expressly pointing out that the “critical witness” responsible for handling the cash flow was never even called to testify.  She was one of 18 witnesses expected to testify who did not appear in court before the prosecution rested and the court dismissed the case. 

The Critical Witness is around, though.  She is in a new job that Mr. Ruto gave her in 2009.  In the meantime, the 270 million shillings allegedly paid for the land are nowhere to be found.