Deputy President William Ruto has sensationally claimed that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration is so corrupt, saying it cannot be trusted to fight corruption.
Speaking in an interview on Thursday, March 3 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the US, Ruto said that Uhuru’s government has lost nearly a tKSh 1 trillion to corruption.
“The other issue is budgeted corruption. Today you have close to KSh 100 billion budgeted every year that has no oversight and in opaque institutions. That amount has grown between four and fivefold in the last ten years,” Ruto said
According to the deputy president, President Uhuru has been allocating billions to institutions whose operations are shrouded in secrecy, hence aiding corruption.
“When you have accountability problems, where you have oversight challenges, the more money you put in opaque institutions the greater the corruption,” Ruto stated.
The second in command further accused President Uhuru of weakening institutions that are meant to fight against corruption so he can advance graft.
Ruto claimed that the fight against corruption in Kenya is not objective as the office of the president only targets those opposed to the government.
“Today, all criminal, and investigations against corruption are carried out by institutions that depend on the Office of the President to give them the money,
“The law provides that these institutions should have their own financial independence complete with their accounting officers and they don’t have to depend on the Office of the President or any other office to prosecute corruption matters,” Ruto continued.
Ruto castigated President Uhuru of systematically weakening independent institutions so to advance his political agenda in the name of fighting corruption.
“Speaking about integrity, our position and my personal position is that we must have an accountable government, we must have accountable public officials and that accountability must be built around institutions,” he said while answering a question on his integrity.
“It is not for me to decide that Ken or Zainab is corrupt but the moment it is subjective and personalized, it runs the risk of being used as a political tool against your competitors as it has been done in Kenya.” The UDA leader stated.
Ironically, Ruto’s sentiments come less than three weeks after President Uhuru termed him as the face of corruption in his administration.
Speaking at Sagana State Lodge recently the head of state hit out at DP Ruto for siphoning money meant for development projects and giving tp churches as donations.
