Following a public outcry, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta this week decided to tackle corruption, ordering a crackdown on corrupt officials in the national and county governments. 

In his State of the Nation address on Thursday, the second since he took power in April 2013, President Kenyatta declared that all officials in national and county governments, legislature and the judiciary who have been adversely mentioned in Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) reports, must step aside pending investigations.

“Let me reiterate that it is not my place to determine the guilt or otherwise of any of the people mentioned in the said report or any other. However, the time has come to send a strong signal to the country that my administration will accept nothing less than the highest standard of integrity from those that hold high office,” said the president.

He noted that the war on corruption will not be won unless all arms and levels of government play their role and uphold the highest levels of integrity and act decisively against any perpetrator of corruption.

Earlier in the week, a group of civil society organisations under the umbrella  Devolution Forum had listed the 20 corruption scandals, including the Ksh42.6 billion ($454 million) laptop tender in which the cost was inflated by Ksh1.4 billion ($14 million) above what the winning bidder quoted; the standard gauge railway contract; the Ksh50 million ($533,000) “Chicken Gate” scandal involving officials of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the Ksh13 billion ($138 million) National Social Security Fund Tassia II and Hazina Towers project; irregular single-sourcing of Ksh 15 billion ($160 million) CCTV security network to Safaricom; and the payment of the Ksh1.4 billion ($14 million) to shadowy Anglo-Leasing companies.

Gladwell Otieno, executive director of the Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog) had demanded that President Kenyatta dissolve the EACC and reconstitute it afresh, cancel all the tenders that have been given under the Jubilee government, and the president to specifically address himself to the mega corruption within his government.

At the same time, the president issued a surprise apology to Kenyans on behalf of his government and previous governments in regard to historical injustices such as land grabbing, massacres, the victims of 2007/2008 post-election violence, political assassinations and detentions of those who were agitating for more democratic space, as a means of moving the country forward.

On the region, the president noted that regional economic integration is progressing well and while he was the chair of the East African Community last year, integration deepened and partner states concluded a range of instruments to enhance close economic, political and infrastructural development ties.