Deputy President William Ruto is now pushing for the scrapping off of the presidential immunity which protects a sitting Head of State from facing criminal and civil proceedings.
Speaking to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) on Wednesday, July 20, Ruto opined that a sitting President should be charged in a court of law if he or she is suspected of engaging in graft.
The DP expressed that the current presidential immunity enshrined in Article 143 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 was doing a disservice in the county's war against graft.
He expressed that the current war on graft was being run solely by the Head of State even as he stated that investigative agencies were being used to target his supporters.
"The budget of the investigative agencies is under the Office of the President (OP) and it limits their capacities on who to investigate. We want to give them their financial independence so that they can be able to investigate anybody irrespective of who they are including the president.
"We must build investigative agencies' capacities to investigate public theft, state capture and conflict of interest. There are countries that take their presidents to court because of corruption. We must take our country to that place," Ruto told SABC's Sarah Kimani.
Further, the Kenya Kwanza leader expressed that corruption cases should be handled within months, a proposal also made by the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya.
However, he stated that former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, will not be able to deal with graft if elected president because he was enjoying the support of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
"The plan of our competitors is to have a president somewhere jailing people which means he is above the law. The fight against corruption needs to be institutionalised.
"How will they jail the same people who are funding their campaigns?" Ruto posed.
According to the Kenyan laws, a sitting Head of State cannot face graft charges as they are protected under the Protection from Legal Proceedings in Chapter 9.
"Civil proceedings shall not be instituted in any court against the president or the person performing the functions of that office during their tenure of office in respect of anything done or not done in the exercise of their powers under this Constitution," reads the Constitution in part.
