Former Governance and Ethics Permanent Secretary John Githongo has lashed out at Jubilee government, labelling it as the most corrupt regime to ever rule Kenya.
He claims corruption has deepened and widened since President Uhuru Kenyatta came to power in 2013 blaming him for not providing the much-needed political will to fight graft.
“So you have a lot of movement on the anti-corruption front whereas in actual fact, in the last four years, we have moved back fairly dramatically, as far as corruption is concerned. This is by far the most corrupt government in our history,” he stated during an interview on NTV.
Githongo cited government procurement in parastatals, Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and Eurobond as evidence of ongoing grand looting.
"The entire system is either in a state of failure or has been captured by corrupt elites as can be portrayed by outright theft in parastatals. There seems to be a very rapacious attitude towards public goods at a level that we’ve never seen before," he said.
When asked why he did not apply to be the chairman of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), he said: “The chairman of the EACC does not have powers to do anything, the chief executive does. That would be a more interesting position for me.”
He also described the search for the EACC chairman as a theatre to keep Kenyans busy after reports that 68 people who had applied for the position were unqualified.
In 2002, Githongo was appointed ‘anti-corruption czar’ by then president Mwai Kibaki, but three years later he fled for his life after uncovering Sh53 billion Anglo Leasing scandal.