Siaya Senator James Orengo yesterday cautioned that the fight against corruption will not be won by just prosecuting suspects.
The war will also be won by naming names, the Senate Minority leader said.
Orengo asked Kenyans not to be scared of naming the corrupt as doing so was one of the strategies of fighting corruption.
The senator said some of the countries that have succeeded in the anti-graft war took that direction. He was addressing the Sixth Annual Devolution Conference at Kirinyaga University, Kirinyaga county.
He said leaders get worried when their names are called. “Even if they are summoned to go and make statements, people get worried. President Donald Trump is now being investigated by the House of Representatives in the United States.”
Orengo cited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as another leader facing charges. A better Kenya is one in which even a President, a Deputy President or a senior government official is investigated and charged, he said. This way, Kenyans will know that however powerful one is, once they engage in corruption they are not above the law.
The legislator said the President had set a good example when his brother was named in connection with the sugar import scam and he told him to carry his own cross if was culpable.
“So I would urge Kenyan leaders, including myself, that when your name is called, do not be afraid because that is part and parcel of the process of the fight against corruption,” Orengo told the delegates.
The fight will only succeed if Kenyans are assured that nobody is above the law under the Constitution. Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, however, cautioned that the fight must be based on the law and evidence.
Murkomen said the danger will arise if independent institutions wait for political goodwill and direction or allow politics to take centre stage in investigations and prosecution.
If the Judiciary will be waiting for politicians to act independently and decisively on corruption, then the country is doomed, he warned.
“This is because politicians come and go after every five years and if one of them has any influence in independent institutions, then it means the other one who will be coming will also have a different influence on the independent institutions,” he said.
Murkomen appealed to politicians to leave independent institutions like the EACC, ODPP and the Judiciary to do their work without direction or instructions.
Yeye kwanza arudishe ile mashamba Ali " acquire" wakati wa .5 gavament
Naming them doesn`t help.
Hawa wezi wote tunawajua kwa majina.
Were you around when judge Bosire took us for a ride during the Goldenberg inquiry?
All they did is to tell us that mosquitos were biting them, and voila… Doom ikatolewa kwa handbag!!!
Wakora judges do nothing to this rich criminals.
I wish Orengo talked about something like we take them to Uhuru Park, flog them nicely, then we make them walk
to Kamiti as we escort them. Na wafungwe kitu like 50 years hivi. Of course asset recovery agency itakuwa ishauza mali yao
by that time. We need the harshest laws and enforce them to slay this dragon. Niliskia China wananyonga corrupt officials.
Naming them? Orengo himself was named. What happened?
By the time we come to know that Wanjiku is corrupt, they already have stolen so much more until they get complacent to a point of getting discovered. Naming or even arresting them is is taken to be just a part of the cost of the riches, and they’re always ready to pay for it because the rewards are always immense. And Kenyans tend to grow a thick skin as they angage more and more in corruption. What is discovered to have been stolen is usually a tip of the iceberg.
Orengo will you tell Kenyans how James Orengo acquired public lands soon after he became minister for lands?
“People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.” Kamlesh Pattni.