Nick Tattersall
Reuters
July 21, 2004

Nairobi: The head of a committee set up to educate Kenyans on the need to fight corruption rounded on its creator on Wednesday, urging President Mwai Kibaki to weed out and prosecute ministers guilty of graft.

“The president has to be seen to lead in this fight by putting a stop to the menace of grand corruption,” said Mutava Musyimi, a senior churchman and head of the national anti-corruption campaign steering committee.

“The president must take decisive action on senior civil servants and ministers implicated in corrupt practices,” he told a joint news conference with Kibaki.

The steering committee, formally launched on Wednesday, is made up of members of the public and private sectors. Its main task is to educate Kenyans on the need to fight graft.

Kibaki indicated he thought it would be best for members to focus on petty corruption. “Ordinary Kenyans are persuaded that they can bribe their way through anything,” he said.

Kibaki is under fire from donor nations and graft watchdogs for tolerating alleged corruption in high places. On Wednesday the European Union said it had postponed a decision on an aid package Kenya needs for its budget because of graft concerns.

Britain says the rate of theft of public funds by top officials is even quicker than that seen under Kibaki’s unloved predecessor Daniel arap Moi.

Kibaki, who won a December 2002 election on pledges to stamp out rampant graft that flourished during Moi’s 24-year rule, announced the anti-corruption campaign in July last year but progress has been slow.

The country’s main anti-graft body, the Kenyan Anti-Corruption Commission, has powers to prosecute but lacks sufficient funds and manpower to carry out its task, Justice Minister Kiraitu Murungi said.

The commission had just eight professional investigators and around 12 policemen, he said.

Murungi cautioned that the Kenyan public was cynical about the government’s commitment to fighting corruption.

“Unless we close this credibility gap, this country risks being trapped in a vicious cycle of corruption for years to come,” he said.