While taking the oath of office in 2013, former president Uhuru Kenyatta promised to tackle corruption heads, which earned him confidence among Kenyans.
But as he officially exited the office yesterday, Kenya still ranks among the worst corrupt countries in the world.
His tenure reduced the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to a toothless dog.
Most state agencies become partisans and his anti-graft war was nothing but a theatrical show targeting political competitors.
And who could forget when the Kenyatta family was among those accused in a global syndicate dubbed the Pandora Papers?
The investigative information appeared to implicate the president’s family in the stashing of fortunes in offshore tax havens.
The Pandora Papers, however, did not hint at financial impropriety; the local anti-corruption agencies have not fully investigated these allegations against the outgoing head of state.
As the new government takes over, a public portal that documents a consolidated source of data and information on corruption scandals since 1978, seeking to enable transparency on instances of corruption in the current as well as past regimes, has been established.
The project dubbed #Wizileaks by Africa Uncensored – an independent media house set up by investigative journalist John Allan Namu – has elicited mixed reactions from netizens after it ranked the most documented instances of corruption during Uhuru’s regime with a total of 120 scandals.
Some of them include:
- The Ministry of Lands – 10 scandals
- The Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public works – 10 scandals
- Devolution department – 8 scandals
- Lands registry – 5 scandals
- Kenya Revenue Authority – 7 scandals
- National Land Commission – 5 scandals
- Judicial Service Commission – 5 scandals
Data from the portal estimates that about Sh586.1 Billion was misappropriated during Uhuru’s regime, compared to his predecessor Kibaki’s Sh19.9 Billion.
It further ranks the following as Kenya’s all-time corruption scandals by the amounts that were allegedly misappropriated:
- Kenya Power scandal (150Bn)
- Kenya Revenue Authority Tax evasion (100Bn)
- Medical scheme (63Bn)
- Kipevu Oil terminal tender (40Bn)
- Lands Ministry: untraceable funds (Sh20Bn)
- Kenya Revenue Authority Duty Stamps (18Bn)
- Livestock division misuse of funds (11Bn)
- Secret corporation running Standard Gauge Railway (12Bn)
- Devolution Ministry (10.5Bn)
- Ageing Spanish Trains (10Bn)
- UASU Deductions (10Bn)
- KURA contractors stall (9 Billion)
The numbers are based on public information, curated from credible news sites and other platforms, but they do tell a story, especially if you look at the number of public scandals reported in the Kenyatta regime vis-à-vis Moi and Kibaki.
You can access the full portal through this link: #Wizileaks
