Africa Centre for Open Governance Executive Director Gladwell Otieno
President William Ruto's two-year-old administration has received a damning scorecard with accusations of entrenching a system of corruption and impunity for political survival.
The latest report by the Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog) shows that most Kenyans believe Kenya is headed in the wrong direction under Dr Ruto's Kenya Kwanza government.
The report, released on Monday, painted a bleak picture of the state of the nation and accused the current regime of facilitating a wasteful system that benefits the few.
Doubling down on its damning assessment, the report cited scandals such as the now cancelled multi-billion Adani deals, the saga of cooking oil, rice and fertiliser imports and subsidised fertiliser as some of the disgraces that have become the hallmark of the Kenya Kwanza administration.
The report accuses President Ruto of perpetuating the politics of survival through rewards and patronage in the form of public budgets, dubious contracts and appointments.
Titled 'Wrong Direction: Corruption in Kenya 2022-2024', the report traces the unfolding continuities and proliferation of corruption in Kenya under President Ruto's government.
State Capture
Africog Executive Director Gladwell Otieno said that although President Ruto campaigned on a promise to form a Commission of Inquiry into State Capture, he has since quietly dropped the promise.
Instead, she said, Dr Ruto's preoccupation has become political survival, which he has rooted in an administration built on kickbacks and patronage.
As a result, corruption continues to deepen, scandals multiply, waste continues, institutional decay continues and checks and balances have been eroded.
Audit reports by Auditor General Nancy Gathungu have revealed the misuse of public funds over the past two years, with Sh15.5 billion worth of revenue receipts on the government's e-Citizen payment portal that cannot be verified.
The Controller of Budget has also identified uncontrolled extra-budgetary spending as a serious national problem.
Much of the spending is concentrated in the presidency, Treasury, Interior and populist subsidy schemes run by the ministries of food and energy.
This is in addition to extravagant spending for personal benefit by the top echelons of President Ruto's administration.
"As he nears the end of his second year as president, the reality of 'no change' is coming at a high cost. Most Kenyans now believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction under Ruto's leadership," said Ms Otieno.
The Africog boss argued that the politics of patronage continues apace as the President seeks to consolidate his support base by rewarding his supporters and inviting his former opponents into government.
The report claims that President Ruto has appointed people under active criminal investigation to the cabinet, with the new government largely made up of newcomers to high office who were selected on loyalty and regional considerations rather than merit.
Ms Otieno pointed out that the Commander-in-Chief has appointed his political party's politburo to plum positions in the government to ensure loyalty to him ahead of the next general election, but also to leave no room for objective criticism from within party organs.
She observed that the leader mobilised a young, hopeful base in the run-up to the 2022 elections by promising "bottom-up" development and a redistribution of political and economic power from "dynasties" to "hustlers".
However, this promise quickly evaporated in the first two years of his presidency and was subsequently replaced by a record of profligacy and mismanagement of public funds.
Small circle of cronies
"Now, two years into his term, Ruto is satisfying a relatively small circle of cronies at the expense of his 'hustler' movement - the poor, youthful base that mobilised to elect him in the belief that the new president would put money in their pockets and break the ethno-political 'dynasty' mould of Kenyan politics," Ms Otieno said.
She pointed out that President Ruto's abandonment of his promise of 'bottom-up' economic development has led to one of Kenya's biggest challenges to presidential authority - the Gen Z protests.
The Africog head said that by the end of 2023, some 53 per cent of Kenyans believed the country was on the wrong track, and by September 2024, an Infotrak poll put the figure at 73 per cent.
She said Kenyans were so jaded about their politicians - including the opposition - that they did not expect corruption to be affected by changes in government after elections.
Ms Otieno argued that the president is no stranger to the system he promised to change and is now exploiting it, accusing him of weaponising law enforcement by filing and dropping charges, securing alliances and loyalty through the power of his office, and appointing several supporters to high public office in defiance of public opinion.
"There will be political impunity as long as Ruto needs to reward his 2022 political supporters and newfound allies in the opposition; and he is well into the second phase of co-opting those who didn't support him but are open to doing business," Ms Otieno said.
The report accused President Ruto's administration of being behind the withdrawal of court cases involving senior officers charged with various corruption and economic crimes and their subsequent appointment to high public offices.
Ms Otieno cited the case of former Kenya Medical Research Institute boss Davey Koech, who received a presidential pardon in July 2023 despite having been convicted in 2021 and sentenced to six years in prison.
According to the report, the number of reports received and processed by the EACC decreased from 9,308 reports in 2018 to 5,252 per year in 2023.
Furthermore, only 1,968 reports were recommended for investigation and only 512 cases were under investigation at the end of 2023.
In 2023, only 97 investigations into corruption and economic crimes were completed and forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions, of which only 74 were recommended for prosecution.
Political influence
Meanwhile, the report found that institutions established by the constitution to enforce laws, fight corruption and monitor public finances were weak and vulnerable to political influence.
It noted that initiatives to curb corruption have met with resistance from MPs on both sides of the House, with a conflict of interest bill stalled in Parliament, and that public administration controls are also at risk of being watered down by parliamentary initiatives to reduce accountability for decisions and actions by civil servants.
The report adds that attempts are being made in Parliament to roll back accountability provisions by removing or rewriting the definition of corrupt activities and watering down the consequences, with counter-reforms seeking to abolish public procurement corruption offences and allow corruption suspects to hold public office.
"Some have gone to extraordinary lengths to reduce the punishment and redefine completely what corrupt activities are. Members of President Ruto's Cabinet have been accused of ineptitude and graft, but Parliament has not used its constitutional powers to hold errant Cabinet secretaries to account," the Africog boss said.
The report also found that the National Assembly has never used its power to scrutinise executive appointments to block a Cabinet appointment.
This is despite the fact that 10 of the 23 members of the original Cabinet have been challenged on integrity grounds.
"All of Ruto's cabinet nominees were approved after the National Assembly perfunctorily dismissed substantive petitions from the public and civil society documenting reasons for ineligibility under Chapter Six of the Constitution," Ms Otieno said.
