Ringera seethes after decision on probe
September 14 2007 at 01:31AM
By Helen Nyambura-Mwaura
Nairobi - The head of Kenya's anti-graft commission lambasted members of parliament on Thursday for blocking a move to widen his body's powers to investigate corruption crimes committed before May 2003.
MPs rejected on Wednesday a government-backed amendment to anti-corruption legislation that would have given the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) power to probe crimes committed before the law came into effect on May 2, 2003.
The current law stops KACC pursuing cases dating from the 24-year-rule of former president Daniel arap Moi, when endemic graft nearly brought East Africa's biggest economy to its knees.
'Others will not take our work seriously at all'
But opposition-led MPs voted against any change.
"They have given aid, comfort and succour to corrupt individuals," a furious KACC director Aaron Ringera railed.
"What parliament has done will make Kenya a laughing stock in the eyes of the international community. Others will not take our work seriously at all," he told reporters.
Kenya's biggest corruption scandal, dubbed "Goldenberg", took place in the 1990s, while a second massive scam, "Anglo Leasing", began under Moi then continued during the rule of his successor President Mwai Kibaki from 2002.
The dual scandals have damaged Kenya's standing with Western donors, infuriated most of the 35 million population, and undermined Kibaki's pledge to stamp out graft.
'So it is the political class protecting itself'
Ringera said the MPs' move on Wednesday would block him from investigating 13 out of 18 contracts in the Anglo-Leasing scandal that saw at least $200-million paid out to a phantom firm for state contracts.
Neither will he be able to pursue those behind the Goldenberg scam in which Kenyans lost at least $1-billion in central bank money through bogus gold and diamond exports.
Corruption is a major factor in Kenya's upcoming presidential election, with critics saying Kibaki has allowed it to continue, and government supporters arguing that the worst perpetrators are now among the opposition ranks.
Local newspapers accused the opposition of masterminding the quashing of the amendment. But Mwalimu Mati, head of the anti-graft Mars Group, said there was government complicity too.
"Nobody argued against this when they had the opportunity," Mati told Reuters. "The MPs are quite delighted, I am sure. The truth is, 120 days before election, nobody is interested in prosecution of grand corruption on either side.
"So it is the political class protecting itself."
Anti-graft chief Ringera has been under fire over the lack of concrete results achieved by the KACC, set up after Kibaki came to power.
Among the best-paid but least productive legislators in the world, Kenyan MPs have also been lambasted in recent days by the public and civil society groups for a proposed massive "severance pay" before parliament breaks up for the election.
They want to pass legislation awarding themselves 1.5 million Kenya shillings ($22 420) each as a golden handshake.
