The Prime Minister has been mysteriously quiet on the Ringera controversy. His silence is puzzling the whole country. The enigmatic manner in which Raila Odinga is treating the Ringera affair means Agwambo has something up his sleeve, on which he is probably still working and, when he is ready to let the cat out of the bag, it will be quick and punchy. His first reaction will come with such a big explosion that it will shock both Aaron Ringera and Mwai Kibaki, who has had the impudence to unilaterally give the retired judge a new contract, at the risk of angering the whole nation. The manner in which the Ringera debate has been conducted so far indicates the majority of Kenyans have had enough of the old lawyer; not because he is not qualified for the controversial job, but because of the perception of his sluggish pace to expose the big fish among the corrupt and his apparent lack of enthusiasm to prosecute them.
Having once been falsely accused by a section of the community of being involved in maize scandal, that is said to have included his son Fidel, Raila must be extremely careful before he openly attacks the man who, ostensibly, would have investigated the Prime Minister and his son following the false allegations. Indeed there are some people who believe Agwambo should have called for an inquiry to investigate both his family and himself to prove that he undeniably was not involved in any corrupt activities. Now that a lot of time has passed since the allegations, Raila does not want to appear to be rejoicing at the misery of the man who was supposed to probe him. Hence the deliberate silence. But there are many other reasons that could have made the Prime Minister buy his time before commenting on the hottest issue of the day.
First the Prime Minister must be enjoying the embarrassment the President is going through for acting unilaterally without consulting the right people. Strangely, the President’s imprudent act came about only when Francis Muthaura returned to his office after a long absence caused by ill health. Inevitably, people will wonder why Kibaki deliberately ignores Agwambo only when Muthaura is around. This time, however, he has done so at his own peril. For taking the thoughtless action of single handedly renewing Ringera’s contract, the President is paying heavily, even though many respected lawyers believe he did nothing illegal. Raila must be enjoying seeing Kibaki against the wall for preferring to consult Muthaura rather than his equal in the coalition Government.
Secondly the Prime Minister must be enjoying seeing the President being chased around the political field of intrigue by Parliamentarians who seem to have very little respect for the Head of State. The cat and mouse game between the President and the Legislature proves that Kibaki has neither full control of the Executive, to which Raila belongs and controls a very substantial share, nor the Parliament, which is fully controlled by Agwambo. The fight between Kibaki and Parliament also proves that ignoring the Prime Minister in making major decisions in the country can be extremely costly for the President. The continued silence by Raila keeps Kibaki in the torture chamber for a longer period, where the Prime Minister hopes the President can learn a lesson of his lifetime.
The current confrontation between the Executive and the Legislature can probably be sorted out in court, but before then, Parliament can do something to remove the ambiguity in the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, which has landed the country in a political quagmire. The warring parties do not disagree on the manner in which the Director and his assistants should be appointed. The bone of contention is on how the Directors’ contracts can be renewed. The President, and the people who back him, seem to think the law empowers the Head o State to renew the Directors’ contracts without consulting anyone.
His opponents seem to think the President has no such powers without consulting the Advisory Board and getting the approval of Parliament. As the debate continues the whole issue has been politicized and old political wounds have been reopened. Parliament should take the fastest step possible to amend the Act and remove the ambiguities. Either the President has the powers to unilaterally renew Ringera’s contract or he doesn’t and the law should be clear about that issue.
Now the debate has taken a new turn with ODM insisting the President broke the law and PNU explaining that no law has been broken by the reappointment of Ringera. The old ODM-PNU rivalries on governance issues are at play in pulling the country apart in political confusion at taxpayer’s expenses. MPs continue to draw fat allowances when all they are debating on is whether or not Ringera was properly reappointed to serve his second term.
Meanwhile the MPs and Ministers, whose files Ringera had opened while investigating graft, wish the debate will never end before Ringera is sent home and corruption cases against them can finally be swept under the carpet. Some MPs are even suggesting that the entire ACCK should be disbanded and Ringera and his complete team should be sent packing. If that happens, it will be the most irresponsible act by Kenya’s Legislature in recent history. No matter how lackadaisical people may think Ringera has been, he has started some very vital investigations which cannot be wished away because some MPs think his reappointment has been done irregularly.
Before MPs send Ringera away and maybe even disband the KACC, the people who pay Ringera and sustain the institution he heads must be told the nature and content of the 498 files which he has handed to the Attorney General for prosecution. A lot of MPs are probably in those files and they would not like Ringera to talk about them. There are eight Ministers who Ringera has recommended for prosecution for corruption. Five of these Ministers served in the former Kenyan Governments and three of them are still Minister in the Kibaki-Raila Government. Wananchi would obviously like to know who these Ministers are and what nature of corruption Ringera is accusing them of. Arguing about the manner in which Ringera’s contract has been renewed will not change the situation. Eight Ministers are still being accused by Ringera. The big question is: Do Kenyans want to back Ringera on this particular issue or do they want to back eight corrupt politicians now hitting so hard against Ringera?
In a Press Statement issued by Nicholas M. Simani, the KACC principle Public Relations and Protocol Officer, the anti corruption body shows that Ringera has made major pro-active interventions that have saved this nation billions of shillings which would have ended up in top corrupt public officials’ pockets .These include a 2.2 billion shilling mis-procurement in the Kenya Sugar Board, one billion shillings mis-procurement of cranes at the Kenya Ports Authority and many other proven cases which mysteriously have been given a total blackout by the local media. What is of greater significance to Kenyan journalists, the vanishing billions that end up with corrupt officials, who Ringera has exposed, or the manner in which his contract is being renewed? What has happened to the news values of Kenyan journalists? What about their own ethical principles of accuracy, impartiality and fair play? The world is watching the misbehaviour of the Fourth Estate in Kenya with a lot of interest.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Corruption is fighting Ringera back
The countless enemies of Aaron Ringera are up in arms. Daggers have been drawn against the KACC boss for more reasons than meets the eye. His invisible, yet extremely powerful, enemies include tribalism, party politics, professional jealousy and, last but not least, corruption itself. For the whole week now the entire country, led by the Fourth Estate, has buried its head in the sand and totally declined to listen to reason on the need to renew Ringera’s contract. Making more noise than anyone else, Parliament itself has condemned the retired Judge’s reappointment as illegal. That, despite the fact that the august House is full of lawyers, who simply refused to be logical and instead became so openly partisan, tribal and unreasonable.
The claim that the reappointment of Ringera was illegal was based on either the ignorance of the law or a deliberate misinterpretation of it. The relevant part of the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, under which the KACC comes, was expertly discussed in a well written article in the Daily Nation by the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mutula Kilonzo, who reveals that no law was broken by Mwai Kibaki when he reappointed Ringera to serve the second five year term. What is shocking is the number of lawyers, including the KACC Board Chairman, Okongo Omogeni, who have ganged up to oppose the reappointment of Ringera. Did these lawyers tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Facts don’t support their case.
The fact that Mwai Kibaki broke no law does not mean he behaved in the most upright, decent or honest manner. His act of ignoring the KACC Board simply means he is an extremely stubborn, pigheaded and may be very obdurate old man who is drunk with power and does not hesitate to exhibit it. Doing so, however, does not mean he is breaking any law. So the Board members have every reason to be upset, but they should not do so by exposing their ignorance of the very law that puts them there. Parliament is making a lot of noise and getting very disconcerted for nothing.
The law does not say that the Legislature has to be consulted before the Director is reappointed to serve a second term. According to the law Parliament is only involved in approving candidates to be hired by the Commission. Ringera had already gone through that procedure before he was hired. Something is seriously very wrong when the whole Parliament becomes embarrassingly so worked up at the taxpayers expense. The LSK is taking the matter to Court but Mutula has already interpreted the law for them.
For the short time that the KACC Director has served Kenya he has made very many powerful enemies including Minister in the current Government. Among the people he has recommended to the Attorney General for persecution are three Ministers in the Kibaki-Raila Government and 58 Chief Executives of Public Corporations. Ringera should now publicly announce the names of the people he wants the Attorney General to prosecute. That way we shall know who his enemies really are. The biggest problem with Ringera is that he has no prosecutorial powers and without those powers he will always appear to be incompetent whereas in fact the man is indeed being frustrated by the big sharks he is trying to expose and prosecute. There are very many Kenyans who believe Ringera should be given more powers to prosecute rather than being shown the door.
Among the people who would like Ringera to lose his job is Rashmi Chamalal Kamani who is involved in the Anglo Lasing scandal including some wanting security related contracts. This man is so crafty that not even Ringera can trace him. All that Ringera can do is to offer an award of 100,000/- to anyone with useful information about Kamani. Whereas Kamani has been forced by Ringera to go underground it is not conceivable that the later is sitting on his laurel waiting for the Anglo Leasing scandal to vanish in thin air. Obviously Kamani is fighting back and he is fighting back using the most powerful men and women in and outside the Government and Parliament.
The next powerful man who can easily do Ringera in is Yagnesh Mohanlal Devani whom Ringera exposed as the man behind the Triton scandal involving more than seven billion shillings. The amount of money is so staggering that any of the beneficiaries exposed by Ringera would do anything to make sure the retired Judge is sent home as soon as possible. There is little doubt that Ringera has achieved more than the Fourth Estate in Kenya would like to acknowledge. Indeed rather than joining forces with those who would like to get rid of Ringera, journalists should support him as the one man always ready to help them do exposes that would put crooks in trouble.
Big money in the hands of crooks is not the only enemy fighting Ringera. Tribalism is also fighting him. Many tribal chiefs look at Ringera’s job as a feather in Gema people’s cap. Jobs in Kenya are so “tribalised” that it is almost a shame to hear even the most highly educated people talking of how many ministers their tribes have, or how many judges and how many heads of parastatals their tribes have. The larger the tribe the more top public official bosses it is supposed to have. Ringera’s job happens to be the most lucrative public office of the land.
Every tribe with anyone on the bench thinks it is time for their son or daughter to occupy that office. Ringera’s achievements notwithstanding, he will always be opposed by tribalists trying to get their own people at the KACC helm. The other reason Ringera is opposed by tribalists is the perception that he is there to protect his own people from facing the long arm of the law no matter how corrupt they are. Tribalists therefore want their own man or woman in that important office to be protected from the law as they continue engaging in corrupt activities.
Besides big money and tribalism, Ringera’s enemies include party rivalries. Ringera is perceived to be a PNU supporter regardless of his real political conviction. This makes him the dart board of the ODM missiles. No matter what he does, he will be always a victim of the most lethal attacks from ODM MPs. This trend will continue until the office is occupied by an ODM candidate. How beneficial that candidate will be to the party is not easy to imagine. But ODM is made up of Kenyan politicians who suffer from the same societal weakness as the rest of the country. Many of them are as corrupt as PNU leaders. Professional jealousy is yet another enemy facing Ringera. The only way he can fight that is to be even more competent. But first he has to keep his job.
The claim that the reappointment of Ringera was illegal was based on either the ignorance of the law or a deliberate misinterpretation of it. The relevant part of the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, under which the KACC comes, was expertly discussed in a well written article in the Daily Nation by the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Mutula Kilonzo, who reveals that no law was broken by Mwai Kibaki when he reappointed Ringera to serve the second five year term. What is shocking is the number of lawyers, including the KACC Board Chairman, Okongo Omogeni, who have ganged up to oppose the reappointment of Ringera. Did these lawyers tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Facts don’t support their case.
The fact that Mwai Kibaki broke no law does not mean he behaved in the most upright, decent or honest manner. His act of ignoring the KACC Board simply means he is an extremely stubborn, pigheaded and may be very obdurate old man who is drunk with power and does not hesitate to exhibit it. Doing so, however, does not mean he is breaking any law. So the Board members have every reason to be upset, but they should not do so by exposing their ignorance of the very law that puts them there. Parliament is making a lot of noise and getting very disconcerted for nothing.
The law does not say that the Legislature has to be consulted before the Director is reappointed to serve a second term. According to the law Parliament is only involved in approving candidates to be hired by the Commission. Ringera had already gone through that procedure before he was hired. Something is seriously very wrong when the whole Parliament becomes embarrassingly so worked up at the taxpayers expense. The LSK is taking the matter to Court but Mutula has already interpreted the law for them.
For the short time that the KACC Director has served Kenya he has made very many powerful enemies including Minister in the current Government. Among the people he has recommended to the Attorney General for persecution are three Ministers in the Kibaki-Raila Government and 58 Chief Executives of Public Corporations. Ringera should now publicly announce the names of the people he wants the Attorney General to prosecute. That way we shall know who his enemies really are. The biggest problem with Ringera is that he has no prosecutorial powers and without those powers he will always appear to be incompetent whereas in fact the man is indeed being frustrated by the big sharks he is trying to expose and prosecute. There are very many Kenyans who believe Ringera should be given more powers to prosecute rather than being shown the door.
Among the people who would like Ringera to lose his job is Rashmi Chamalal Kamani who is involved in the Anglo Lasing scandal including some wanting security related contracts. This man is so crafty that not even Ringera can trace him. All that Ringera can do is to offer an award of 100,000/- to anyone with useful information about Kamani. Whereas Kamani has been forced by Ringera to go underground it is not conceivable that the later is sitting on his laurel waiting for the Anglo Leasing scandal to vanish in thin air. Obviously Kamani is fighting back and he is fighting back using the most powerful men and women in and outside the Government and Parliament.
The next powerful man who can easily do Ringera in is Yagnesh Mohanlal Devani whom Ringera exposed as the man behind the Triton scandal involving more than seven billion shillings. The amount of money is so staggering that any of the beneficiaries exposed by Ringera would do anything to make sure the retired Judge is sent home as soon as possible. There is little doubt that Ringera has achieved more than the Fourth Estate in Kenya would like to acknowledge. Indeed rather than joining forces with those who would like to get rid of Ringera, journalists should support him as the one man always ready to help them do exposes that would put crooks in trouble.
Big money in the hands of crooks is not the only enemy fighting Ringera. Tribalism is also fighting him. Many tribal chiefs look at Ringera’s job as a feather in Gema people’s cap. Jobs in Kenya are so “tribalised” that it is almost a shame to hear even the most highly educated people talking of how many ministers their tribes have, or how many judges and how many heads of parastatals their tribes have. The larger the tribe the more top public official bosses it is supposed to have. Ringera’s job happens to be the most lucrative public office of the land.
Every tribe with anyone on the bench thinks it is time for their son or daughter to occupy that office. Ringera’s achievements notwithstanding, he will always be opposed by tribalists trying to get their own people at the KACC helm. The other reason Ringera is opposed by tribalists is the perception that he is there to protect his own people from facing the long arm of the law no matter how corrupt they are. Tribalists therefore want their own man or woman in that important office to be protected from the law as they continue engaging in corrupt activities.
Besides big money and tribalism, Ringera’s enemies include party rivalries. Ringera is perceived to be a PNU supporter regardless of his real political conviction. This makes him the dart board of the ODM missiles. No matter what he does, he will be always a victim of the most lethal attacks from ODM MPs. This trend will continue until the office is occupied by an ODM candidate. How beneficial that candidate will be to the party is not easy to imagine. But ODM is made up of Kenyan politicians who suffer from the same societal weakness as the rest of the country. Many of them are as corrupt as PNU leaders. Professional jealousy is yet another enemy facing Ringera. The only way he can fight that is to be even more competent. But first he has to keep his job.
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