Citizen TV anchor Francis Gachuri on Thursday, May 7, gave his two cents on how the war on corruption should proceed if it is to make any meaningful progress.
During a live airing of Citizen TV's roundtable News Gang, the seasoned anchor sarcastically opined that if the corruption cases of top brass individuals were not concluded as well as the recovery of money allegedly misappropriated, it was time to change tactic.
"Arraigning of big fish will only be good for headlines if the billions they are alleged to have mismanaged are not recovered.
"If looters of these resources are not made to pay dearly, then we can as well legalize corruption and give medals to those who have grabbed the most," he stated while delivering his weekly punchline.
Gachuri further referenced strides that had been taken in the corruption war, with the recent ruling by the Supreme Court dismissing a case filed against a ruling by the Court of Appeal.
The Supreme court stated that it would not hear cases already determined by the Court of Appeal ultimately shutting the door for Stanley Amuti, a former finance manager at the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation, who could not explain his wealth.
"As a matter of right under Article 163 (4) (a) and that those who cannot explain the source of their wealth cannot rush to be heard at that level," the ruling read which would make for such cases to be heard in less time with the Court of Appeal having the final say.
The ruling meant that constitutional right to property cannot be invoked and ultimately does not protect property that has been obtained from proceeds of crime. This leaves those with similar cases with no constitutional protection to hide behind.
Gachuri stated that most of the problems in the country were in one way or another influenced by corruption, the diversion of funds, looting of resources and encroachment of catchment areas.
He further called for the multi-agency task force on corruption, comprising the EACC, DCI and the DPP to embark on an asset audit and smoke those who benefitted from looted public resources and money laundering.
"Looting of public resources must be made painful and worthless. The clean up must start at the top," he affirmed.
Here is the video courtesy of Citizen TV:
{"preview_thumbnail":"/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/kyghwqn_wJY.jpg?itok=CJHkhtId","video_url":"","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]}
Over the past two years, several high ranking individuals have been arraigned in court over corruption including Governor Mike Sonko, Ferdinand Waititu (Former Kiambu Governor) and Henry Rotich (Former Treasury CS) and Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu.
Funds have been recovered from corruption proceeds and been diverted to other uses.
On Tuesday, April 7, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Noordin Haji and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) presented a donation of Ksh2 billion that were recovered proceeds from corrupt practices to the Covid-19 emergency fund.
