Corruption has risen to be among President Uhuru Kenyatta areas of interest in shaping his legacy.
In a bid to slay the dragon of corruption, the government has used several tactics, but a new approach is looming.
Remember ‘Kamata Kamata Friday’. It made some progress. The introduction of freezing of assets has also achieved considerate milestones in recovering the taxpayers’ money.
In the state of the nation address, President Kenyatta did not hesitate to address the pain of corruption.
“I am well aware of the task ahead of us, no doubt, is enormous. But there is no turning back in our quest to transform our national economy to become truly an engine for creating jobs and opportunities for Kenyans,” he said.
He told the joint National Assembly and Senate sitting that he was turning back on his Big Four Agenda, Building Bridges Initiative and war against corruption.
” There is no turning back on the war against corruption as it is a just war, a war to prevent misuse of public resources for selfish interests by those we have entrusted to manage them,” he said.
“We are not turning back because we are determined to gift our children a better Kenya than the one we inherited. A prosperous Kenya where respect for the rule of law and integrity are the accepted norms,” he continued.
Acknowledging that Kenyans were waiting to see more convictions of the corrupt, President said it will be done by the law and not ‘vigilante justice and pitchfork protests’.
“I’ve been under pressure to answer who I am sacking, I must, however, caution that the pursuit of the corrupt will be undertaken strictly within the limits of the law,” he said amidst cheers from the legislators.
“We have effectively adopted a ‘follow-the-money’ approach to investigations and prosecutions that will continue to be strengthened and applied across the range of serious crimes, including economic ones,” he said, assuring Kenyans that the looted funds will be recovered.
In his last year’s address, he acknowledged that there had been a challenge in the use of public resources where some individuals had fraudulently diverted resources to benefit themselves instead of Kenyans.
He warned leaders against misusing public resources saying they would be held accountable as the war against graft intensifies.