This archive report was first published on 18 July 2019.
Kenya has lost a staggering Sh6.6 trillion to corruption over the last decade, with the country's anti-corruption crusader John Githongo warning that the nation is in full capture of systematic corruption lords.
Speaking during a recent interview on KTN News' Point Blank with Tony Gachoka, Githongo, who served as Governance and Ethics Permanent Secretary under former President Mwai Kibaki, stated that corruption trackers showed the cumulative amount had been lost and there was no end in sight for the cancer of corruption that was devouring the country.
He cited the Anglo-Leasing scandal, which he raised the alarm on in 2004, as an example of how corruption in Kenya was so systematically planned across many institutions. The scandal, which involved the financing of multiple security-related contracts in the early 2000s, led to a loss of Sh6.8 billion, according to Githongo.
For Githongo, corruption has spread its roots so far that now Kenyans are suffering in different dimensions, including food security and threatening to destroy unity created by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Opposition leader Raila Odinga.
He blamed insensitive leaders, who refuse to respond to grievances facing ordinary citizens, for the humanitarian crisis in counties such as Turkana and Baringo, where people have lost lives due to starvation.
“Drought is caused by God, but when people die, it is man-made. It is people who have failed. This is not a poor country,” he stated.
