Corruption in Kenya is sliding out of control, veteran anti-corruption activist and whistle-blower John Githongo has warned in an interview with AFP following a scathing audit of government finances.
The comments also came after US President Barack Obama’s visit to Kenya when he spoke of “the cancer of corruption”. The publication of an official audit found just one percent of Kenya government spending and a quarter of the entire $16 billion (15 billion euro) budget was properly accounted for.
Mr John Githongo says this is the most corrupt government.
“This is the most rapacious administration that we have ever had,” said Mr Githongo. “Corruption in Kenya has deepened and widened,” since President Uhuru Kenyatta came to power in 2013, he claimed.
Apart from the Auditor-General’s report, a series of scandals have emerged in the media concerning government procurement and land grabbing, perhaps the oldest trick in Kenya’s corruption playbook.
The country is slipping down Transparency International’s annual corruption index and is now 145th out of 174 nations, down from 136 in 2013. With media and civil society also under pressure the 50-year-old corruption fighter warned of “the speed with which democratic space is shrinking”.
The government insists it is battling graft and Kenyatta has spoken out clearly and often against corruption, including during Obama’s visit. Earlier this year a handful of ministers and other officials were suspended, but Mr Githongo said this was “lip service”.
“There is a complete disconnect between what he says and what he does,” he claimed, accusing Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto of creating “the atmosphere in which civil servants, politicians and businessmen can engage in corruption on the kind of grand destructive scale we are seeing today.”
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