STATEMENT

ON CORRUPTION & INSECURITY

SUNDAY, 30th NOVEMBER 2014

MR. PRESIDENT: THE BUCK STOPS WITH YOU!

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking the time to join us.

SECURITY: THE GOVERNMENTS FAILURES

Why are we here today? First, we would like to address two issues that pose the greatest
threat to Kenya as a STATE and Kenyans as ONE people - insecurity and corruption. No
State can stand if these issues that pose an existential threat to Kenya remain unaddressed.
We are here because our hearts are heavy. We come first to mourn with our brothers and
sisters who have lost loved ones most recently in Kapedo and Mandera. These fellow
Kenyans both the civilians and those in the security services - died because of their
commitment to the service of this nation and us, their fellow citizens. We are here also to
stand with those who are saying No! to all forms of gender based violence, joining with
those who condemn most vociferously the barbaric attacks by a few Kenyan men on our
fellow citizens, under the guise of protecting societys mores by stripping women on our
streets. This is not in our tradition as Africans and is inimical to the standards we have
covenanted to uphold in our new constitution. We come as Kenyan citizens to stand against
all forms of insecurity and terrorism visited on innocent individuals, whether in the name
of a war against a state or as a callous act of cruelty on vulnerable fellow Kenyans.

However, there is only so much we can do as individuals and were not about to go out and
all buy rungus to protect ourselves. And that is why the last two weeks have seen Kenyans
spontaneously take to the streets in expressions of outrage against the stripping of women
in public; and to protest the security meltdown thats underway across the land. Despite
energetic efforts by some in the Jubilee government since it assumed office to paint public

demonstrations - which are a constitutional right - as the work of foreign funded so-called
evil society, it is the reality we have experienced recently as Kenyans that is sending
Kenyans to the street and that reveals this state propaganda as nonsense.

A dramatic decline in security and in the safety of the lives and property of Kenyans would
appear to have accompanied Jubilees tenure in office thus far. From Westgate to Usalama
Watch (Operation Sanitise Eastleigh); to Mpeketoni, to Lamu that remains under an illegal
curfew, to Kapedo where 26 innocent policemen sadly lost their lives, to the recent
invasion of mosques, further alienating large sections of the Kenyan population along
religious lines; and, most recently to Mandera, we are forced to acknowledge that we are
living in the middle of a slow motion security meltdown. Events over the last year and half
in Tana River, Garissa, Nairobi, Isiolo, Baringo, Samburu, Turkana, Mandera, Lamu,
Mombasa and Bungoma bear grim testament to the fact that this government has failed to
prosecute one of its core mandates: to protect the lives and property of the Kenyan
people. One of the rights that the government has the constitutional duty to protect is not
to be subjected to any form of violence from either public or private sources (Article 29);
the government is dismally failing in this respect.

As the crime rate soars and entire sections of the country become no-go areas even for
government officials, incompetence and sometimes outright flippancy of responses by top
officials, including the President and Deputy President, to this deteriorating situation feeds
a climate of increasing fear and despondency. Kenyans were particularly upset last week
when it became clear that the head of state remained on an overseas business and pleasure
trip while Kenyans were being massacred in Mandera. To some it was indicative of the
importance, or lack thereof, he places on his function and role under Art. 131(1)(d) of the
constitution - "The President ... is a symbol of national unity. Top officials have manifestly
been unable to inspire confidence that they know what they are doing by demonstrating
either empathy for the lives of wananchi or a proper command of the response to the
situation, let alone a plan for dealing with the underlying problems. It is therefore clear that
Kenyans are no longer at ease and fear for the future troubles many. In matters of security
the buck stops emphatically with the President for he is leader of the government that is

required by the constitution to serve ALL Kenyans. The administration can spend billions
on expensive computer security systems but at the end of the day we are all our brothers
and our sisters keeper and above all this must be the Presidents philosophy. If the
President is unwilling or unable to lead the decline is precipitous. Particularly worrying is
the singling out of the Muslim community for attacks, jeopardizing national integration.
Worse is yet to come. As Kenyans of goodwill we recognize that security should not be
politicized and we offer to play our part in assisting in all genuine efforts to return Kenya to
a state where the majority of citizens have confidence that the government is in control of
the security situation.

We do well to remember that the Anglo Leasing contracts, some of which were paid under
Jubilees tenure, were for the provision of equipment and services 10 years ago that would
greatly have mitigated the security crisis were in. They were, in Kenyan parlance eaten.


CORRUPTION: CHICKENGATE
Kenyans have in recent weeks been grimly entertained by reports emanating from the
prosecution in a British court of the security-printing firm, Smith & Ouzman. Details
emerging from the court allege corruption involving some of the most senior past and
present officials of the Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the
Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC). The implications of the kind of corruption,
being described as Chickengate because the British companys representatives and their
Kenyan counterparts euphemistically described bribes as chicken, is potentially
devastating.

For starters, the Kenya National Examination Council is the spinal column of Kenyas
education system. If it is true that it has been systemically infected with corruption the
implications are dire because Kenyans will inevitably lose faith in their system of national
examinations. Recent revelations accompany persistent and consistent reports of exam
papers leaking, being sold and generally being part of an exam system whose integrity has
been lost. It is a bitter irony that this year 2014 marks the year when the beneficiaries of

the Free Primary Education introduced in 2004 completed their Form Four examinations.
Corruption of the Examinations Council betrays them, their families and the country as a
whole by toppling a pillar of our education system.

THE IEBC
It is alleged in a British court, with reference to considerable documentation, that officials
of Smith & Ouzman dished out chicken or bribes - to current and former officials of the
Independent Elections and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) as well. This is not the first time
the integrity of the IEBC and its leadership has been brought into question. An elections
body, like a bank, survives on public trust and derives its legitimacy and credibility not
from the technical sophistication of its election materials, tools and procedures, but from
public faith in its impartiality, competence and integrity. The IEBC lost public trust a long
time ago and the latest scandal is merely the final nail in the coffin of an already dead
institution. It is shameful and a testament to greed, and powerful anti-Kenyan sentiments
that the named officials refuse to resign and remain steadfast in their positions while
appreciating that their conduct can lead to the kind of electoral failure that in turn
precipitates violence on a wide scale in a country like Kenya. We no longer have an
institution capable of holding a national election.

Kenya is at a critical tipping point. We can either respect our new constitution and the
spirit of constitutionalism it implies or allow a contradictory rollback of hard-won
freedoms that will not be bloodless. The spontaneous demonstrations by Kenyans in the
last two weeks demonstrated the growing outrage of the Kenyan people; it demonstrated
their exhaustion with governments endless propaganda. They are demanding one thing:
leadership. True leadership beyond the flowery words full of empty promises; leadership
that begins to tackle a security situation sliding out of control; leadership that takes on
corruption in critical institutions and doesnt have to wait for British courts to prosecute
cases involving Kenyan officials who are, in a totally bizarre turn of events, still sitting
comfortably in office - reading about themselves in the newspapers like the rest of us - in
an unprecedented display of impunity. There is one man who can begin to change this and
thats the President of Kenya. Kenyans would be happy to support any efforts to clean up

these critical institutions at this critical time. But at the end of the day, the buck stops with
one man: the President. Its time he picked up the baton and led. It is time he goes beyond
the hand and head to the heart and the soul; beyond the hardware to the software of our
fraying Nation. Mr. President, please observe and respect the constitution as you have
sworn to do and as the constitution requires you to.

GOD BLESS KENYA