For the war against corruption to succeed, Uhuru Kenyatta must act on his family

We may not know everything he has to do to win this war but one thing is for sure, he has to start by reigning on his family and close friends.

The last few days have been marked by growing public anger by the revelation that relatives of President Uhuru Kenyatta and well-connected Jubilee operatives were the main beneficiaries of exaggerated tenders for the supply of various materials needed to help the country combat the Covid19 pandemic.

One of the beneficiaries was Ziwala Limited which is owned by President Kenyatta’s nieces – Samantha Ngina Muthama and June Nduta Kinyua.

Regardless of how competitive the tender may have been, it is not a pretty picture that two of the President’s nieces were paid Ksh84 million to supply face masks at a rather exaggerated price of Ksh700 a price.

The Public Procurement Oversight Authority (PPOA) is mandated with the responsibility of resolving unfair competition or conflicts of interests in the award of public tenders.

However, the picture does not look good that one of the board members at PPOA is Ruth Ngobi – President Kenyatta’s in-law and an aunt to his two nieces.

Kenyans will remember that in 2015, the respective mothers to Samantha and June – Nyokabi Kenyatta and Kathleen Kihanya – were linked to the controversial Afya House Scandal through their company Sundale International Limited that had won lucrative tenders to supply health equipment.

Little was ever shared by public agencies tasked with investigating that scandal.

Integrity is mostly about perception and if public officials watch President Kenyatta’s relatives operating with blatant conflict of interest, then they will follow suit and corruption will continue unabated.

GoK needs to do more to protect taxpayers money.

It is embarrassing for a country that prides itself as with hard work to be robbing the poorest and vulnerable in society.

For instance, disturbing findings showed that despite Kemsa being given the monopoly to sell exclusively to government agencies, Kemsa has been overcharging counties by up to 77 per cent for some essential drugs.

Uhuru needs to take the bull by the horns and crackdown on the theft that has rocked almost every part of government agencies.

Recently Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe revealed that his ministry is a den of thieves run by procurement cartels.

The fight for Covid-19 billions that is reported among Afya House, the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) and the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) is the recent scandal to rock our health sector.

People's lives are put at risk with every passing minute and some powers that be have decided to make maximum profits off the money they haven't worked for.

CS Kagwe told the Nation recently that he secretly removed labels from personal protective equipment (PPEs) imported from China and privately sent them to official government labs at Kebs for testing and they failed the liquid penetration test.

These are the same PPEs that will be given to medical workers on the front line fighting Covid-19 risking their lives against this deadly enemy.

This year will be written in history books and Uhuru should tap into his inner righteous self and make a declaration as he did in 2018 and vow to lose friends or family to fight corruption and protect Kenyans against the vultures that have sworn to reap from where they did not sow.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the company.