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Political Corruption Highlights Challenges for December General Elections

By Lorie Miller

May 4, 2007

Kenya's President, Mwai Kibaki, faces corruption charges and declining public support as he looks ahead to December's general elections.  His coalition, NARC (National Rainbow Coalition), is now struggling to prepare an election campaign due to inter-party fighting.  While NARC struggles to develop an effective campaign strategy, the opposition party’s platform is gaining momentum.

Kibaki's December 2002 landslide victory ended almost forty years of governance under the political party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU).  During its tenure, the KANU ruled for the most part as a single-party state.  The administration of President Daniel arap Moi, who ruled for twenty four years, faced corruption charges and enormous domestic and international pressure to introduce a multi-party political system, which he did in the early 1990s.  Kibaki's 2002 win was primarily due to campaign promises to fight graft and corruption, and to address Kenya's economic problems. 

Soon after his election, however, and to the frustration and alienation of many of his constituents, corruption charges marked Kibaki's own administration.  Some donors estimate that nearly $1b was lost to graft between 2002 and 2005.   Most of this corruption has been in the form of bogus contracts awarded either for drastically overpriced goods or to nonexistent companies.  Officials in Kibaki's administration, as high up as Vice President Moody Awori, have faced fierce criticism and calls for their removal in 2006.   In response, President Kibaki has shuffled around members of his cabinet, moving some senior officials to lesser posts, but for many critics, these moves were, “too little, too late.”

Kibaki's presidency has faced numerous challenges and corruption seems to be endemic to his administration.  In 2004, Kibaki and his coalition were working to rewrite Kenya's outdated constitution when conference delegates moved to include measures to curb executive powers in the new constitution.  Kibaki's government at the time officially withdrew from the conference, while other conference delegates went ahead with a vote to back these new measures.   Since then, any further work on a new constitution has stalled. Work on the constitution must be continued in order to resolve both constitutional issues in Kenya but also leadership issues that have developed from Kibaki’s attempts to strong-arm top the anti-corruption official, John Githongo, into backing off his investigation into corrupt ministries.  When Githongo went public with his allegations of corruption, the charged ministries denied the allegations, and since then, Githongo has resigned from his government post and is currently in exile in Britain, fearing for his safety.   

This type of imbalance of power cannot be allowed to continue. We have seen in the recent Nigerian elections that simply having an independent electoral commission is not enough to ensure democracy and freedom. It is also essential to have an effective constitution combined with an adequate system of checks and balances so that power is evenly distributed. This concept of separation of the three branches of government is especially important in ensuring an independent justice system. This was a finding from the International Conference on the State of Affairs of Africa (ICSAA) put on by the IIJD last October.  The very first finding that conference participants highlighted was the pervasiveness of “dysfunctional systems of governance, supported by poor leadership and inept economic and political institutions are the root causes of Africa’s development crisis” (ICSAA). Therefore, to ensure future free and fair elections as well as freedom of the press, it is important to resolve both constitutional and leadership problems in Kenya.

Recently, the media has been subject to government attacks.  In 2006, armed police raided two media houses in Kenya, an attack that shocked many in the Kenyan press.   With the impending December elections, advocates for fair journalism are warning that the potential for corruption and intimidation of journalists is great.  Esther Kamweru, Executive Director of the Media Council of Kenya, cautions that “Politicians will be eager to sway the media to their personal agenda. It is up to the conscience of individual journalists to ensure this does not happen.”   To this end, she suggests that media houses develop guidelines that will outline election coverage. 

The vulnerability of the free press and the strong-handed tendencies against whistle-blowers cast serious doubt on the current administration's commitment to good governance and the democratic process.  The potential corruption of December’s presidential elections will have far-reaching consequences, not only for the Kenyan people, but also for stability across the war-torn region of East Africa. 

The recent corruption scandal surrounding Paul Wolfowitz's abuse of power as president of the World Bank has underscored the fact that the practice of corruption takes place in poor and rich countries alike.  However, the most devastating consequences of corruption are found in poor countries, like Kenya, where corruption paralyzes political and economic development.  Due to its corruption scandals, the governments of Germany and the US have suspended their aid to anti-graft agencies in Kenya  and the World Bank has also delayed its sending an aid package worth $260 million to Kenya. 

The IIJD denounces corruption and the interference of justice in Kibaki's administration.  The alienation and exile of John Githongo is an outrage that must not set a precedent.  Investigators, journalists and all citizens must be allowed open space to criticize the government's corrupt practices without fear of punishment.  The IIJD calls for widespread transparency and freedom of the press and the judiciary in the coming months in Kenya as citizens renew their quest for stable and accountable democratic governance.