[SIZE=6]Activist wants protests against CS Mailu, PS Muranguri halted[/SIZE]
Rights activist Ken Wafula wants planned protests to push Health CS Cleopa Mailu and PS Nicholas Muraguri over alleged Sh5.2 billion scandal halted.
Wafula has called to patience to allow the auditors, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and other responsible agencies to complete investigations and give a report.
“Those implicated in such reports should be asked to step aside to face criminal charges based on concrete evidence,” he said.
This comes even as Cord announced plans for a “mother of all protests” on Tuesday where it wants to press Mailu and Muraguri to step aside.
Read: Raila coalition calls mega demo targeting 1 million Kenyans over Sh5b health scam
But Opiyo Wandayi, one of the conveners, said the alleged theft of funds happened at the time of CS James Macharia.
Wandayi said that it is Macharia who should be probed for the loss of funds and not Mailu.
Civil society groups also held protests on Thursday to agitate for the resignation of the two.
Read: Police, goons turn on journalists in Mafya House protests
Wafula said corruption cartels are found in the line departments and are deeply entrenched.
“A principal secretary or a cabinet secretary who joins a ministry may not be familiar with the cartels and in most cases falls victims to their machinations once the officer begins implementing changes injurious to their interests,” Wafula said.
“When an official steps aside, the architects of corruption finds an opportunity to develop cover-ups and become the winners,” he said.
Wafula faulted mass protests to push top government officers implicated in corruption scandals in their ministries to step aside.
He said that the philosophy of “stepping aside” has not achieved much in the country, adding that most people who have been asked to quit office before have in most cases been exonerated after investigations.
“Stepping aside removes the public’s focus from the corrupt deals in affected ministries. Most people think the problem gets solved the moment such officers step aside,” Wafula said.
He said Kenyans are far from winning the graft war because of short-term and emotional response to allegations of corruption.
Yaani even this hacktivist has realized that CORD’s methods are counterproductive?