President Uhuru Kenyatta has moved to distance his government from corruption, blaming the antigraft agencies in the country for the increasing rates of corruption.
Speaking on Tuesday at the corruption summit held at State House, Mr Kenyatta said that his government had done everything within the constitutional limits and allocated resources for all organs fighting the crime.
The president said that although Kenyans were putting the blame on him, his government had done more that all the previous regimes since independence.
“As president, if there is one issue that has frustrated me, it is this issue. And I will say why. Because the pressure is on me. Show me any one administration since independence that has taken action on corruption like I have done. I have removed everybody. I have done my part, at great expense also, political, by asking these guys to step aside,” he said.
“Then where do we go from there? They say, 'I am innocent'. I don’t know whether they are innocent or what, move aside. I have taken the actions that I can take, within the Constitution. When we sit down, and I challenge all the agencies here, they say we don’t have the resources, we don’t have this and that. I challenge them here to stand up and say we have been denied the resources we need,” he added.
The president said that he did not have constitutional rights to decide over cases, and that once corruption cases were made to the judiciary, it was their (Judiciary’s) role to try and bring to justice those involved in the graft.
Investigation agencies attending the summit took sides with the president and took blame on the Judiciary for freeing suspects even when there was enough evidence incriminating them.