President Uhuru Kenyatta has directed the National Intelligence Service to put top government officials, especially those handling corruption cases, under closer surveillance.
Many senior officials in the anti-corruption chain itself are under intensified surveillance and Big Brother is watching virtually all officers handling the NYS case, the Star was told yesterday.
Those being monitored include Judiciary staff ranging from judges to magistrates and court clerks, investigating officers at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and prosecutors in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
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The President wants anyone taking bribes or being influenced in any way to compromise the fight against corruption arrested, charged and dismissed from work altogether.
“The President is not taking chances with this fight. He has resourced key institutions fairly well so as to facilitate their work,” said a senior official at Harambee House.
“He has made it clear that those who have stolen must face the law, money must be recovered and proceeds of corruption repossessed. He has personal faith and trust in some of the people driving the fight,” the official in the presidency said.
The NIS, according to various sources, is briefing the President regularly on the response to his onslaught on corruption.
When he spoke on Thursday in Mombasa upon his return from overseas, the President rebuffed claims that had surfaced while he was away that the crackdown was targeting certain individuals.
“A thief is a thief. Whether you are Kikuyu, Kamba, Kalenjin or Digo. You stole alone and you will be jailed alone,” he said. He proceeded to direct that a lifestyle audit be carried out on all state officials beginning with himself, Deputy President William Ruto, Cabinet Secretaries to governors, all the way down.
In the case, 51 people including Gender PS Lillian Omollo and NYS director general Richard Ndubai, who stepped aside, are facing numerous charges regarding the loss of nearly half a billion shillings by the National Youth Service.
Milimani chief magistrate Douglas Ogoti denied the suspects bail, citing threats to national security. He said the offences affect the country's economy.
On Thursday, the President swore that he will end corruption that is costing the country a fortune.
“I swear to God, this will end,” he vowed. “We will ask you questions on how you got your wealth. If you don’t have answers, there is someone in Kamiti waiting for you. He will give you the answers instead,” Uhuru said.
“Transparency is when all those in authority declare what they own and how they got their property,” he added.
The lifestyle audit is the latest in a series of radical measures announced by the government to deal with graft.
On Wednesday, the President issued an Executive Order requiring all government entities and publicly owned institutions to make public the full details of tenders and awards from July 1. The order was echoed in the Budget Statement by Treasury CS Henry Rotich on Thursday.
It requires all tender information to be published — the names of the bidders, the bid sums, the winning firm and details of the directors, as well as the beneficial owners.
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Rotich also announced that the government will set up a Common User Agency which will set standard prices for common supplies in a bid to eradicate the overpricing of goods supplied to government entities.
The government will also set up a e-procurement platform effective January 2019, to eliminate human contact in the processing of tenders which provides the opportunities for corruption.
On Madaraka Day, the President had announced that public servants will be vetted and they will have to take polygraph tests.
Three days later, procurement officers and accounting officers in government were sent on compulsory leave for a month and asked them to submit a raft of documents to the Head of Public Service to be vetted afresh.
The government termed the move the first phase of an exercise that is expected to be cascaded across all levels of the national and county governments.
Undercover agents have been collecting intelligence on the procurement officers which the vetting team will use when they are called up for interview.
It is understood that the President will issue a new executive order next week to explain how lifestyle audits will be carried out.
He will also state who will undertake the audit, the extent of the audit and how long it will take.
Lifestyle audits are often used as a tool by government to investigate claims and or suspicion of corruption.
Besides the obvious question of how one acquired their unusual or mismatched wealth and lifestyle, it is understood that the government will be seeking to determine remittance of t taxes.
Three years ago the EACC team led by Mumo Matemu tried unsuccessfully to introduce lifestyle audits as part of the fight against corruption.
Then vice chair Irene Keino and and deputy CEO visited a number of countries to learn how the audit is done. But when they briefed their colleagues at the commission, the idea was shot down by a senior official, according to EACC sources.
Weeks after he succeeded Matemu as chairman in 2016, Philip Kinisu announced that the commission was planning to subject public officers to a lifestyle audit to combat graft in the country. He promised to formulate an appropriate plan to vet workers in all the 47 counties.
But the same forces at EACC and outside fought the audit plan and conspired to kick Kinisu out in a well-executed plan. He resigned in disgrace in August 2016, four months after he had assumed office, after his company Esaki, was linked to the first NYS scandal.
Interestingly, it was his fellow commissioners who were on the front line, piling pressure on Kinisu to leave, urging him to take personal responsibility for Esaki's dealings with NYS.
They warned that he faced suspension unless he voluntarily stepped aside to pave the way for investigations.
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