Double standards, blind political sycophancy, war of words and heckling. These are some of the dishonorable behavior our elected leaders have engaged, in relation to yet another multi-million corruption scandal in government, this time at the National Youth Service (NYS).
Devolution and planning Cabinet Secretary Ms Ann Waiguru has for weeks now been on the spot because NYS lies in her docket. She has maintained that she is clean in relation to the Sh826 million scandal, claiming that she was the whistleblower and asked the Directorate of Criminal investigation department to investigate how the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS) was hacked by unknown people (as at now) in an attempt to steal from the service.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, through State House spokesperson Manoah Esipisu, defended the embattled CS, stating that he will not ask her to step aside to allow investigations to be carried out by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), amidst a series of demands from the opposition and other political leaders that Ms. Waiguru should be suspended, just like other Cabinet secretaries were suspended by the president.
Deputy President William Ruto has also been on record claiming that the opposition are just engaging in unnecessary politicking regarding the NYS saga, stating that the NYS program aims to empower the youth and to engage them in development oriented activities.
Jubilee government unveiled the new NYS late last year and it has since engaged quite a number of youth in the country in development activities, most notably in Kibra (Nairobi) and Kisumu County.
Calls by various leaders that Ms. Waiguru be suspended received mixed reactions from the youth who are involved in NYS activities in Kisumu and Nairobi. Some youth held peaceful demonstrations in both counties in support of Ms. Waiguru, while others demonstrated asking the president to sack her.
On Tuesday, heckling and name-calling reigned during the grilling of Ms Waiguru over the alleged corruption scandal. Ms Waiguru was summoned by MPs to answer to allegations by opposition MPs who had questioned procurement at NYS and the rise of the number of its recruits from 6,000 to 31,000. There have been claims by opposition MPs that the Jubilee administration is planning to militarize the National Youth Service through massive recruitments across the country.
The embattled CS during the meeting reiterated that she would not step aside to allow for investigations, stating that she wasn’t in charge of procurement. She said that the Ministerial Tender Committee is the independent authority responsible for procurement. She also said that the amount in question has gone down to 695.4 million from 826 million
MPs, some of who were not members of the two committees (attended the session as “friends of the committee”) that summoned Ms Waiguru hijacked the meeting, traded bitter words and almost engaged in fistfights;an act that can simply be described as dishonorable. The CS became just a spectator in a meeting where she was supposed to clarify issues raised against her in relation to her alleged involvement in the graft scandal.
So, is this the right way to fight graft? By engaging in double standards- asking other leaders mentioned in corruption scandals to step aside to allow smooth investigations into the claims while defending others? MPs, who are supposed to demonstrate traits associated with their ‘honorable’ title engaging in name-calling, war of words and nearing fist fighting in public, before the whole world?
I must say that it is very embarrassing that our leaders have continued to demonstrate political sycophancy instead of charting the way forward to fight graft- a thorn in the flesh of economic development in the country since independence.
The recent acts by our elected leaders since the NYS saga came to the limelight is a clear indication that unless we realize that corruption is a disease that can cripple our country, we will continue to sing the song of ‘we are committed towards fighting corruption’ forever and realizing the dream of a graft-free nation will forever be like chasing a mirage.