Allow me to comment on this debate. I served in the KACC as a Crime Reading Officer in the Legal Services Department between 2005 and 2006. Prior to joining KACC I had served the Government in the Armed Forces where I had successfully prosecuted several criminal cases before the Court Martial.
I would like to tell Kenyans a number of things that they do not know about the Commission.
1. The Commission is staffed by very experienced officers with wide experience and expertise in many disciplines. Most of them are very committed to their work and would like to see Kenya become a corrupt free society. They spend a lot of time to collect and collate evidence regarding mega financial scandals which are a reflection of looting of public resources in the years gone by. The officers have done a lot and if the number of files under investigation is anything to go by, then they deserve commendation and not condemnation. Some of the files under investigation may however never see the light of day, and this for several reasons. Many of the scandals under investigation relate to many members of the current political class starting from Ministers, Assistant Ministers, Members of Parliament, Permanent Secretaries, CEOs of State Corporations etc.
Secondly, Justice Ringeera is himself a major hindrance to the ongoing investigations. A lot of time is spent by the officers doing in-house memos and proof- reading their own work. This is because the judge does not trust his own officers, especially those with police background and views every investigation with the mind set of a serving judge. Justice Ringeera has refused to accept the fact that he is no longer a judge but an investigator. He has therefore put a lot of administrative hurdles in the way of investigating officers and he has to sign each and every file, letter or memo that leaves the commission to another government agency. Due this beauracracy a completed investigation file would take not less than two months to leave the Commission for the Attorney General's Chambers. At the AG's Office the file is then read and re-read again and would take another month before suspects are arraigned in court. If there are further queries from the State Prosecutors, then the exchange of letters and memos would take another two months before the file ever gets to court.
2. The other most baffling thing about Justice Ringeera and his top management is their inability to put up proper governance structures in a public body which claims to be the epitome of virtue. The hiring, staffing and deployment policies of KACC are very poor and give the Judge a lot of room to exercise open favouritism. A good example is in the legal department where it is not strange to find officers who graduated the same year, with similar qualifications and the same number of years of experience occupying very varied positions. The favoured lot come from an enclave of Eastern Province and occupies positions which are 3 or 4 grades senior to their contemporaries or even more senior advocates. I reserve the names of the effected officers for obvious reasons. This disparity is also evident in the other departments and every insider in the Commission knows that there is marked difference in stipends between the favoured lot and the rest.
3. The other problem at the Commission is that of leakage of information relating to sensitive investigations. When I was serving in the Commission, it was not strange to find some defence lawyers with more information relating to case file than the KACC Investigators/ Crime Reading Officers. Some of the defence lawyers would openly boast that their clients (mainly politicians) are well connected to top managers at the Commission. This is not strange since the appointment of Justice Ringeera and other top managers was passed in Parliament after political horse trading. This is why the present leadership of the Commission has demonstrated ineptitude and incapacity in dealing with past and present corruption once and for all. Hon. Justice Aaron Gitonga Ringera may have been excellent as a law professor and a judge but his stewardship of the KACC is questionable. If the comments of some Ministers, MPs, anti graft activists, ordinary Kenyans and some of officers who served under him are anything to go by, then his leadership of KACC is nothing to write home about.
4. My take on this debate is that the KACC as an institution is doing a good job against many odds. The officers are very committed too but the leadership is very wanting. Kenya needs KACC. There are internal problems in the Commission which cause delay in completing investigations. These are not institutional, but of bad leadership. Parliament should not condemn the Commission because of one person.
1 comment:
In this era i was surprised to read Capt. Wanderi showering praises on Kibaki and at the same time condemning the leadership of the KACC. One question that comes into mind is "if Justice Ringera has failed in his job,who then should take the lead and show him the door?......Kibaki ofcourse. Many pple seems to forget (including Wanderi)why we elect leaders and then those leaders have the mandate to delegate duties to other pple.But then if the chosen pple fails in their duties then our leaders should take the blame. So with all being said and done, the buck stops with the president. So Capt. Wanderi and the rest should take the blame where it is well rested ...Kibaki again.
Capt. Wanderi seems to complain so much abt favorism at the KAAC while at the same time defending this Govt. against ethinism, tribalism and nepotism...why the double standard? when are we gonna rise above ethinism and tribal politics. It's sad even the educated are falling into the tribal bandwagon.....why the see no evil hear no evil when it comes to pple from the same geographical location.In my considered opinion,i think leaders should be held accountable for the failures of their juniors regardless just as in the developed World. Though Capt. Wanderi and i come from the same constituency,that does mean i should agree with him and support Kibaki, coz i believe there always gonna be differences but what makes a big difference is how we handle those differences and surely i've bn disappointed in how Kibaki and his men have handled their various issues in their term.At the top of the list is the constitution..."someone said a bad constitution can even corrupt an angel", second on the list is corruption...(why fry the small fish when you let the big ones go scot free"..just to mention but a few. During Moi's era, he surely tried to have the kikuyus segregated for 24 yrs of which he failed but Kibaki did it in 3yrs. Personally i give some credit to Kibaki coz of the good things he has done for the country but at the same there's alot of stuff that leaves alot to be desired.Our country has the potential of becoming like Asian tigers but only we the good leadership. Kibaki could be a good man at a glance but he has sorrounded himself with sharks. As they say "show me your friends and i'll tell you who you are"....I know in the current list of potential leaders,we surely don't have anybody who is not tainted even Kalonzo,they all belonged to Kanu at some point but we as the youth and the leaders of tommorow of which never comes, have the power to navigate our country to the same route that the asian tigers took. But our greatest enemy is the change...most of us are afraid of the unknown and we tend to more comfortable with our our current situations. If only we can embrace the change,then we would be set to roll the dice and take this country to greater heights. As for the current presidential contenders, we know we don't have the best but we just have to choose the one who we can relate to and who is willing to empower the youth and not the old guards(they had their chance and now its ours).So before you make the next move,think beyond the next five years, think about your future,and lastly think about the next generation.Lets not be selfish.
jg.
gaitho@hotmail.com
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