President Uhuru Kenyatta has insisted that the war on corruption won’t be won by political bickering and talks at public fora like funerals and weddings. Speaking at the sixth annual Devolution conference, the Head of State said the aimless walking and talking won’t help anyone, and that anyone who has information concerning him stealing any public property should avail the information to the DCI. “Someone said that I stole property, I can tell him to walk to the DCI offices at Karura and say what Uhuru has stolen,” he said, “Instead of the issue of threatening people because you’ve said something at funerals. The deceased can’t help you.”
This comes after a spate of comments from a section of pro-Ruto leaders who have faulted the war on graft, saying it’s targeting the Deputy President William Ruto. During the weekend, Kapsaret MP Oscar Sudi said some leaders are trying to use the dam projects case to cover for the JKIA takeover, and that in the tussle between the poor and the rich in the leadership circles, they know the affluent have also stolen, “We’ll face off with you the rich people of Kenya, you think you are everything…it’s not as if we don’t know what you people have stolen, you are the biggest thieves,” said Sudi.
During the devolution conference, President Kenyatta reiterated that only the DCI can help someone with evidence seeking to incriminate him. He said that leaders shouldn’t be worried about being implicated in the graft cases, because they’ll still have time and the opportunity to defend themselves, “And if you’re still being implicated that you’ve stolen, go and look for a lawyer, appear before the court and present your evidence that you didn’t steal.”
On the devolution progress, the President said that he believes it’s totally working in the country. However, he said the issue of revenue utilization should be addressed and that a meeting should be held to address ways of using taxpayers’ money well. He said at the moment Kenya’s population may be around 50 million, yet 52% of the ordinary revenue received from Kenyans is set aside for the salaries of government workers and another 30% caters for recurrent expenditure, leaving only 18% for around 50 million Kenyans, “Surely there is something wrong in that equation,” he noted.
He cited an example of an unnamed County, which collects revenue of Kshs 9 billion, yet Kshs 6 billion is set aside to pay only 6,000 workers, with only Kshs 3 billion to cater for the County residents and development. He said another County uses Kshs 600 million to oversee Kshs 800 million, “Does that makes sense?” he posed. He said a national conference should be held to set out ways of tackling this issue.