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chooses the path to ruin The Scotsman, by James Astill 15th August, 2001. Kenya's parliament threw out an anti-corruption bill demanded by international lenders yesterday, leaving the economy on the brink of ruin. Scorning an unprecedented visit from President Daniel arap Moi to vote for the bill, opposition MPs rejected the investigative body it would have re-established. Key amendments to the proposed Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) would have left the anti-corruption process in the hands of the very government which has plundered Kenya for a quarter of a century, they claimed. KACA was ruled unconstitutional by the high court late last year after exposing the massive economic crimes of several high-ranking ministers. It was re-submitted to parliament yesterday with amendments, including the provision of amnesty for crimes committed more than four years ago, and for the government to terminate any investigation at will. Kenya is now extremely unlikely to receive around $200 million of IMF loans - promised on condition that the anti-corruption body be resurrected. That would leave a shortfall of $50 million in this year’s budget, continuing the downward spiral of what was one of East Africa’s most prosperous countries. "I’m disappointed people don’t take the welfare of common people to heart," said Mr Moi, blaming the opposition. But the opposition leader, Mwai Kibaki, said the bill put forward by the government did not go far enough. "The opposition wants to eliminate corruption. We are not opposing this bill because we don’t want to fight corruption, that is a gimmick by the corrupt elements in the present government." Kenya’s business community reacted to the bill’s defeat, falling 15 votes short of the necessary two thirds majority, with horror. "This is a death knell for the economy," said Wilfred Kiboro, chairman of the Federation of Kenya Employers. Interest rates would soar and unemployment - already well over 50 per cent - would rise. The vote was the death knell for an economic reform and anti-corruption programme instituted two years ago by Dr Richard Leakey, the celebrated conservationist and then civil service chief. At the time, cynics dismissed the programme to include massive lay-offs in the public service and heavy privatisation as an effort to entice the IMF and World Bank back. Mr Moi could have no interest in liberalising an economy which had been used as a private patronage resource to keep him in power, they said; citing a bloated civil service and a string of corruption scandals involving high-ranking ministers. After successfully winning back the donors, Dr Leakey was dismissed, and every one of his reforms has subsequently been reined in. The civil service retrenchment programme has been halted; the government has effectively refused to privatise the broken-down national telecommunications company. Political expediency lies behind Mr Moi’s apparent readiness to see the country ruined, analysts say. If Mr Moi is to ensure his supporters win the election when he stands down next year he must have the means to pay for it. Lenders were accused of naively funding Mr Moi’s war-chest when they announced the resumption of funds last year. But if that money is not coming, Mr Moi’s fading regime will not welcome the kind of scrutiny which KACA was designed to provide. Then again, if Mr Moi is to secure his retirement, he will also have to placate a population grown weary of nationwide power and water shortages and soaring crime - in Nairobi yesterday one of the president’s own entourage was car-jacked. http://www.thescotsman.co.uk |
