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September 16, 2004

Speaking Notes For John Githongo, Permanent Secretary-Governance & Ethics, Office Of The President On The Occasion Of the American Business Association of Kenya Luncheon On 16-09-04

THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION:
LESSONS LEARNT

Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very glad to be speaking before you here today. I would like to suggest a change of format for today's lunch. Instead of giving a long speech about which you can then ask some questions, I propose that I shall speak for only 10 minutes and then we can dedicate a little more time to your questions. A large part of my time is spent thinking and strategising and an important element of this strategising is listening and responding to the questions of a group as esteemed as the one gathered here. In my brief remarks today I shall focus primarily on the challenges to the fight against corruption and some the lessons we have learnt over the last 20 months.

One of the most significant developments on the anti-corruption front, especially over the past year, has been the beginning of the destruction of corruption networks that have held some of the most important procurement systems of the Government of Kenya in a vice-like grip for over 15 years. Indeed, one can argue that the so-called Anglo-Leasings of this world are not merely incidents of corruption but elements of a powerful system of doing things that had entrenched itself in the area of security-related procurement. Part of the reason there is so much blood on the floor after the successful intervention of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission in these matters is precisely because their enquiries have led to the disruption of networks that have persisted for decades and may have cost the Kenyan taxpayer billions of Shillings over the years.

We have understood that we inherited networks of corruption that quickly reasserted themselves last year as we found our feet as an Administration. We are duty-bound and committed to uprooting these networks while respecting the challenges they pose to any new Administration committed to the fight against corruption.

Another lesson of the last year has been the need for us as Government to invest more and more in Communications. The ability to demonstrate our successes and explain our challenges and problems to the public is one of the most important attributes of a Government committed to transparency and accountability. To this end, in part, we have crated the office of Government Spokesman. Poor communication of Government policy and actions becomes a major obstacle in an era of unprecedented media and civil society scrutiny. Even in the legislature the level of scrutiny we as a Government have been, and can expect to be subjected to will be unprecedented. And where corruption is concerned, sometimes sitting in the opposition benches might be individuals with specialist knowledge on these issues, sometimes continuing insider knowledge on these matters because elements of old networks have at times remained intact in both our political and bureaucratic establishments.

Suffice it to say that change is never an easy process, especially when it comes after one-and-a-half decades of systematic subverting and sometimes outright dismantling of the very instruments of state that we now find available to ourselves to make change happen. So, change is hard but never impossible and always an honourable challenge. Turning a Government around is like turning an oil tanker, you can turn the wheel 180 degrees but it may take several miles before the entire vessel makes the turn. However, quietly and away from the limelight measures are being implemented by Government not only to change culture so that we can deliver our promises to the Kenyan people but the Economic Recovery Strategy (ERS) that constitutes the most important of these promises is being systematically implemented. These changes don't always happen at a pace that meets with public expectations and this has led to the current apparent challenge of huge public expectations that can sometimes find expression via different forms of publicly expressed frustration. The ERS, the Government's investment programme for the ERS, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the ongoing civil service reform programme are the technical side of the changes the Government has committed itself to bringing about.

In December 2002 the people of Kenya voted for CHANGE. Indeed, I would go as far as to say that Kenyans did not vote so much for this or that party, they voted for change and that change was lead by Mwai Kibaki under the banner of NARC. In one-and-a-half years President Kibaki's administration has already demonstrated its commitment to change via a range of measures in the area of governance that have and will continue to have far-reaching implications on governance in Kenya: I shall not go into them in detail as they have been repeated in many forums many times before: radical surgery of the judiciary, implementation of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act and the Public Officers Act, the declaration of assets by public servants, our various commissions looking into the past and other systematic efforts underway. All of these fall under the seven pillars of His Excellency the President's anti-corruption programme: Leadership; Dealing with the Past; Institutional reform; legal reform; collaboration with the private sector; crating an enabling environment for civil society and the media; and, finally engaging more proactively with the international community.

This does not mean that the fight against corruption is smooth sailing. As has been observed by non other than His Excellency the President, corruption fights back. Not only does corruption fight back, the corrupt often have more liquid resources at their disposal than those fighting them. It is also not unlikely that corruption continues within our own NARC administration. Zero-tolerance to corruption does not mean corruption ends.

As is the case after every major transition one finds an anti-reform lobby entrenched in the political system and civil service. The capacity for this lobby to entrap members of the new administration is strengthened by the fact that the ancien regime is flush with corruptly acquired resources and is often more than ready to teach newly powerful friends how "to do business" as they say. As a result one of the most oft repeated, albeit quietly repeated, complaints by some is that anti-corruption efforts are bad for business. The anti-reform lobby gains unlikely allies after a transition as a result of normal political jockeying and competition. Suffice it for me to point out here that the anti-reform lobby is steadfastly opposed to the fight against corruption because as far as it is concerned politics is paid for by corruption. The ability to influence politics and buy political loyalty often comes via corruption. This means that managing political finance and how we pay for political activity in Kenya is one of the key challenges our Administration must grapple with.

I believe there continues to be a committed and powerful pro-reform lobby in Kenya. It is powerful because it is led by His Excellency the President. A lobby that is committed to fulfilling the promise of change rather than lining their own pockets first; a lobby that is committed to prosperous economy where all and not only a few profit; a lobby committed to a Kenya where all can live without fear and not one where so-called 'orders from above' drive illegal activity and fear and despondency; a lobby that is sincerely aghast at the looting that has taken place in Kenya over the last twenty years and not merely committed to filling the shoes of those who may have looted before them. This is the New Kenya that His Excellency the President is committed to - a Kenya that is peaceful, prosperous and free of corruption.

In between the pro-reform and anti-reform lobbies one detects a deliberate and coherent counter reform lobby. A lobby whose aims are actually anarchic. A lobby composed of parties who because of the scale of stealing they may have committed in the past and the murders and other human rights abuses they may have been involved in, would prefer if nothing worked at all. Counter-reformers are most adept at feeding useless information to reformers to keep them running round and round in circles. Indeed, the best counter-reformers after a major political transition are masters of reinvention; where they were once stalwart defenders of the wrongs of the past, after the transition they sing most loudly about the need for change, about the horrors of corruption and they remind us how God-fearing they are and how they suffered under the previous regime. They share coincidental interests with the anti-reformers but the latter may not actually realise it.

At the end of the day CHANGE will only happen when the fight against corruption is spread between institutions across society and is internalised by individuals in the entire nation. This will allow change in the institutions that have become bottlenecks to the performance of the private sector and in so doing hampered economic growth. As I have noted this CHANGE is led by H.E. the President and this leadership provides the enabling environment for all reform to take place.

American Business Association of Kenya Luncheon On 16-09-04