How deep-state has slowed Uhuru's anti-graft crackdown

President Uhuru’s vicious corruption crackdown that appeared to have brought to its orbit the country’s top dogs, seems to have nosedived.

The anti-graft war initially appeared set to claim the country’s untouchables, but politicians and analysts now say the momentum has fizzled out.

Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti and DPP Noordin Haji appear to have run out of steam in what many attribute to  President Uhuru Kenyatta's failure to offer political direction.

The crackdown intensified in April last year following Haji’s appointment. A year later, however, the push seems to have lost momentum amid claims of political intimidation.

Insiders admit the anti-graft war has actually slowed down with very few new arrests since February, leaving some complex public interest cases in jeopardy.

The Ruaraka land scam, Kenya Prisons,  Sh400 million Amaco insurance deal at the Kenya Pipeline Company and the Sh65 billion Arror and Kimwarer dams’ scandals remain unresolved.

This even as there are claims that the ‘deep state’ could have succeeded in unleashing an aggressive assault on Kenyans by managing to trigger a lull in the anti-graft war.

There are claims the President could have ceded too much ground that might 0-graft lords some breathing space to perpetuate their public sleaze.

Makadara MP George Aladwa expressed disappointment at the pace of the anti-graft war. “They are the same people against the ‘handshake’. We must name and shame the corrupt and hound them out of the office like yesterday. We don’t need to dilly dally,” he told the Star.

Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi said the President must not waste time in nailing the corrupt as there is overwhelming evidence.

“The President does not need any more evidence. He has enough intelligence about the looting in his government. I was among the first to call on the corrupt to leave office and they must do so,” he said.

Former Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka has warned that Kenya might be forced to go the Sudan way should the corrupt not be dealt with expeditiously.

“With no high-level prosecution expeditiously taken, Kenyans might be tempted to an uprising. The time to get our orientation right is now,” he said, in reference to the revolution that toppled former President Omar al Bashir.

He spoke at Stephen’s Church on Jogoo Road on April 30.

Nyeri Town MP Wambugu Ngunjiri admitted that Kenyans are “disappointed because they are not “seeing the arrests and prosecutions they want”.

“Kenyans have a mindset of the people they want to be arrested because they think they are corrupt. Until that is done they think the fight has gone slow,” he said.

Saying the war against corruption is a complicated matter, the vocal MP said Kenyans must learn to be patient to await the outcome of the wheels of justice in the fullness of time.

“The initial arrests were hyped which made Kenyans very excited. Now that there is no more communication about it, Kenyans feel that disappointed,’ he noted.

“Prosecutions are not as sexy as arrests. They take time. The fight is not based on momentum but process."

Nominated MP Maina Kamanda, however, says the war on corruption is still on course and denies claims it has slowed down.

“The investigators want to do a professional job. I am sure they want to avoid politics, and that is why they have gone silent,” he told the Star, adding that they have just changed tack.

This even as claims of lack of political direction from the President persist following his April 4 State of the Nation Address indecisiveness.

The President had said that the pursuit of the corrupt “will be undertaken strictly within the remits of the law — and not through vigilante justice and pitchfork protest”.

He snubbed public pressure to fire top officers in his government accused of graft, in what analysts say signaled Uhuru's inaction.

But his failure to crack the whip on graft suspects immediately triggered fury, with critics saying he had been beaten into submission by Deputy President William Ruto.

The DP’s allies, who have previously trashed the anti-graft war as a charade, were even seen celebrating when Uhuru delivered his speech in Parliament on April 4.

However, while the DP’s lurking hand may be seen in the President’s reduced anti-graft momentum, it has also emerged that there could be powerful faceless forces who conspired to defeat the war.

The Star has established that the powerful forces who covertly control State policy are behind President Uhuru’s corruption crackdown nosedive, handling graft lords a lifeline.

The “deep State” also described as State within a State is clandestine network entrenched in the government bureaucracy, intelligence agencies, and other governmental entities.

These hidden networks of power operate independently of a nation’s political leadership, in pursuit of their own agenda and goals.

In Kenya usually referred to as “the system’, the obscured yet powerful political forces roiling behind-the-scenes could have conspired to derail the war on corruption after they felt threatened.

The faceless individuals have for many years been controlling the country’s policy directions crafted in favour of their interests through which they have curved multi-billion business empires.

Concerned with the massive political implication of the graft onslaught and interests of the ‘system’, a legacy-focused Uhuru is facing a delicate balancing act.

On Thursday, a former minister and seasoned MP from Western Kenya told the Star that while the President is not to blame for the slowdown, he could have ceded ground for the sake of stability of his government.

“The system is a deep-rooted state with people who pull strings on government policy which is always skewed to their advantage. They will never address the media, they don’t run for elections nor lead successful blue-chip companies but their interests are entrenched far and wide,” the ex-MP told the Star.

Unmasking the operations of the ‘deep-state’, the former MP cautioned that had the president pressed on with his ruthless war on graft without any moderation, then the system could have contrived to sabotage the crackdown.

“These people are well connected and very influential. They are the ones that install regimes because they are not interested in power but security for their wide-ranging interests,” the former lawmaker added.

National Assembly Minority leader John Mbadi, however, said just because there is nothing much in the media it doesn't mean the war on corruption has lost steam.

“I don’t think the war against corruption has slowed down at all. We had complaints that the DPP and the DCI were prosecuting their cases through the media and now when they are quiet and doing their work, we are being told that the war has slowed down," Mbadi said.

Political analyst Mark Bichachi said the anti-graft multi-agency has changed strategy.

He said the DCI and the DPP could have retreated after realising they were making hurried arrests before collecting enough evidence.

“The learning line is to slow down the speed to prosecute people before gathering cogent evidence,” Bichachi told the Star in an interview.

Confirming the DCI’s weaknesses, however, the analyst cited a crumbling case in which cartels conspired with the Kenya Bureau of Standards officials to fake results that there was mercury in fertiliser and then went ahead to change Kebs standards to lock out others.

“They [DCI and DPP] should plant moles in institutions with the technical capacity to gather evidence. You can't bring a policeman who only knows how to arrest petty offenders and task him with cracking the complexity of the Arror and Kimwarer dams scandal,” he added.

Political analyst Martin Andati said the state could have adopted a different approach in dealing with corruption following frustrations in court.

“I wouldn't say it has slowed down. It could be a change of tact,” he said.

However, some lawmakers have urged Uhuru and his new-found buddy Raila Odinga to soldier on with the war on corruption to safeguard public resources from plunder.