A STATEMENT BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY TASK FORCE ON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR GRAND CORRUPTION
GRAND CORRUPTION: KIBAKI MUST ACCOUNT
Mwai Kibaki has once again demonstrated his complete lack of commitment to fight corruption and, even more, that he is a beneficiary of it. The Anglo Leasing and the corruption scandals of Moi, and Kenyatta before him, will remain unresolved so long as Mwai Kibaki is the President. His continued dalliance with Daniel arap Moi is proof enough of his going back on his word to Kenyans that 'Corruption will cease to be a way of life in Kenya'. So too is the reappointment of the disgraced Daudi Mwiraria.
Kenyans must remember that the Anglo Leasing scandal is as yet unresolved and has cost them Ksh.56 billion that we know of from the Controller and Auditor General's report. The scandal of Irrevocable Promissory Notes (IPNs) also remains with us. Undisclosed amounts in the IPN's are floating out there exposing Kenyans to pay for what they never received. In spite of the reports by Kroll and associates of 2004, which found Ksh. 79 billion stashed abroad, nothing has been returned to Kenya while the government claims its impotence to recover stolen assets.
Kenyans need to be informed now that even today the government is perpetuating further actions of corruption, no doubt related to the need to raise money for elections.
Specifically it has committed Ksh. 840 Million by a contract of February 2007 to overhaul four second-hand junk helicopters which were fraudulently purchased through Anglo Leasing type procedures in 1998. Provision has been made in the current budget estimates to pay for overhauling the junk helicopters, thus throwing good money after bad. It would be better to cancel the fraudulent deals and instead buy new, functional equipment transparently. New and cheaper helicopters are .available on the market. The purchase of faulty equipment on whose rehabilitation and maintenance ever greater sums must be spent provides a cover for continued theft of public resources.
A most suspect provision in the 2007/08 budget is for the repayment of a phantom loan incurred in the 1970's for the never built KENREN Chemical and Fertilizer factory. The provision of KShs.4.4 billion has been made for the repayment of this fictious loan incurred during the stewardship of the Treasury by Hon. Mwai Kibaki. Thirty years later, under the government of that same Mwai Kibaki, Kenyans are being asked to pay KShs. 268,626,623 million for a service that was never rendered. To this day no factory has ever been built. This is similar to the way in which Kenyans will continue to remain liable for the repayment of the illegitimate debts incurred during the Anglo Leasing looting spree.
One of the first contracts signed by this government was for a naval warship for 4 billion shillings. Then Minister for Internal Security Chris Murungaru clearly lays blame for this deal at the president's feet. Kibaki has never denied responsibility. The parliamentary committee on Defence and Foreign Relation supported this deal even though important questions remain unanswered:
• The committee does not appear to have had the technical capacity to properly assess the project
• The committee never spoke to the company that built the ship but instead contacted the brokers who were themselves under investigation by KACC
• The ship is not fitted with weapons which would make it useful for defence
• The radar and other equipment on it are without warranty
• In short it is not a warship
The conduct and the conclusions of the parliamentary committee's inquiry into this ship is suspect and, we are informed, contrary to normal parliamentary standing orders and practice. Further, the report was, curiously, available to litigants in court before it was tabled in Parliament.
Both the helicopter and the navy ship contracts should be cancelled, money paid refunded and the responsible public officers investigated and prosecuted.
There is more. The current budget makes provisions for a mysterious payment to a French bank BNP of Ksh. 603 Million this year. Kenyans must be told what this payment and many similar ones are for.
We expect in the next few days to see attempts to whitewash Anglo Leasing suspects similar to the gazette notice by KACC which purported to clear Kiraitu Murungi.
The time has come for Kenyans to finally accept that the Kibaki they have is not the Kibaki they elected. This Kibaki is prepared to enter into the most unprincipled deals to secure his hold on power. If he is re-elected, it is clear what Kenyans can expect from a Kibaki II government namely even more unrestrained corruption, abuse of power and flagrant impunity.
From 2002, Kibaki seems to have come full circle from 'Yote yawezekana bila Moi' to today's apparent slogan of 'Hakuna chawezekana bila Moi'. Let the Kenyan voter beware!
This forum recalls that Civil Society endorsed the Kibaki candidature in 2002. We now resolve to call on them to formally withdraw their endorsement of Mwai Kibaki for reasons of betrayal and corruption as cited above.
The forum further resolves to put the same case to the 2000 delegates of the National Youth Convention which will be held in Nairobi on 11th-12th August 2007 at KICC to formally do the same.
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