Six corrupt Cabinet Secretaries have had to leave office under the Uhuru presidency. But none has gone down with nearly as much fury as has Anne Waiguru. Months after resigning, Waiguru is still fighting to “clear” her name. On Monday she filed an explosive affidavit at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in which she accuses top Jubilee leaders Aden Duale, Kipchumba Murkomen and Farouk Kibet as being the real masterminds of corruption in the National Youth Service.
Waiguru’s affidavit will no doubt put some political careers on the knife-edge. As the NYS racket mutates, confirming the thieving ways of our leaders, some institutions will have to try to dodge the volcano on which President Uhuru Kenyatta, the EACC and voters themselves now sit.
No right-thinking Kenyan still believes that the responsible institutions have any interest in fighting corruption, but the stability of the system rests on myths. Like that Uhuru, himself rich and upright, is being let down by subordinates. Or that the ever 'new' EACC chairman Kinisu was so outraged by the Waiguru debacle that he’s now personally overseeing proper investigations.
Before delving into the substance of Waiguru’s affidavit, let me point a not-well-recognised trait that helped Waiguru rise to so much power, thereby changing the way women leaders are viewed in our patriarchal society. It is not contested that Waiguru was the first female Cabinet Minister in any administration to be universally reckoned as super-powerful by friends and foe.
A proud single mother of three, Waiguru’s approach to her ministerial work was, ‘work first, gender second’. She didn’t feel obliged to act like a typical Kenyan woman leader, struggling to be seen as a mother like Grace Mwewa, Zipporah Kittony, Phoebe Asiyo, Linah Jebii and even Alice Kandie have had to.
Despite lacking a political constituency, her power antics mirrored those of Charity Ngilu and Martha Karua, the most influential women politicians Kenya has produced. Her marital status wasn’t a big issue as it had been for single women leaders before her. The buzz about her relationship with the president only cemented her power, which she used to establish a reputation for toughness.
True to the maxim that power corrupts, scandal followed Waiguru’s trail, with questions raised about procurement in her ministry and agencies under her watch. Her reported role in the cases intrigued many who had assumed that technocratic ministers, without political encumbrances, can be most upright.
Under unyielding public pressure, she made history as the first Kenyan minister of any gender to resign from office for corruption. With her affidavit, now she has become the first former minister to open the lids on high-level corruption. The decades-old practice of high-level suspects going down alone has been broken.
Which begs the question, why did she do it? Does Waiguru fear that the new EACC investigations, sparked by Josephine Kabura’s tell-all affidavit, will get to the depth of Waiguru’s role and even result in severe punishment? Hardly. The commission messed big time in clearing Waiguru before investigations were complete. But it is still in a hole, prevaricating over Kabura’s affidavit. There should have been arrests by now.
Waiguru’s revelations betray her eagerness to address the damage done by Kabura, who detailed how the minister recruited her into NYS money-minting scheme, arranging the registration of private companies for her, mobilising tenders, and directing her to hand over proceeds of the racket to the minister’s blood sister.
In going public, Kabura earned public respect for bravery. Here was a struggling, ill-educated hairdresser who came across an opportunity to make millions courtesy of a contact who happened to be the most powerful woman in Kenya. Waiguru’s affidavit lends credence to Kabura’s claims to the extent the former minister herself confirms she was consorting with people (Duale, Murkomen and Kibet) whom she knew to be pilfering public funds.
When the NYS scandal broke, Waiguru made a big fuss about having it investigated, at one time posing as a whistleblower. If as she suggests in her affidavit she was merely pretending and covering up for corrupt officials, this in itself is a crime for which she ought to be severely punished.
How high did the conspiracy go? We probably won’t know. Waiguru has only named allies of Deputy President William Ruto, who by any measure is reputed for financial sleaze. The meteoric rise of NYS budget from Sh7 billion to Sh25 billion within three years also suggests the racket went higher above Waiguru.
The NYS scandals provide a perfect education for young Kenyans about the links between corruption and economic opportunities. The old generation that spearheaded previous struggles for multiparty, the new constitution and other gains in legal empowerment have all but stopped fight for equality and justice, but new heroes are required in the relay race.
Politicians might conveniently use the minefield of evidence that will emerge from this investigation to create a false narrative of which one between TNA and URP is more corrupt, but Kenyans must demand punishment for all those implicated. If Waiguru won't carry the cross for her fellow powermen, why should poor Kenyans?