MOMBASA, Kenya, Mar 20 – Deputy President William Ruto on Wednesday said if the war on corruption is hijacked by the political class and lacks integrity, that is corruption in itself.
Ruto said there have been attempts by politicians to say that the political war waged against him is said to be the war against corruption.
“The war on corruption is an integrity war, therefore, the war on corruption that lacks integrity is not a war on corruption, it becomes corruption in itself,” said Ruto.
He said as an administration, they have made deliberate investment in all governance institutions to enable them prosecute the cases of corruption independently.
However, there have been vested interests to hijack the war on corruption and turn it against government programmes, he said.
Ruto said in these attempts to politicise the war on graft, many government projects are affected and many civil servants made causalities.
“I’m surprised, that there are people who have a problem with my constant assertions that the war on corruption must be fact-led and evidence based and in accordance to the law. How can a reasonable person have a problem with evidence, the truth and with the law, if you are genuinely fighting corruption?” posed Ruto.
He was speaking during the official opening of the First Inter-Professional Summit at PrideInn Hotel, Mombasa.
The summit brings together accountants, human resource managers, suppliers, lawyers and secretaries under their different associations.
Ruto said the war on corruption will only succeed if undertaken professionally.
“Imagine, the other day, someone was asking me, what is my interests in the dams. This is a very strange question because I’m a Deputy President, in other words I’m a Deputy CEO of a country called Kenya. I must be interested to know what goes around Kenya,” said Ruto.
He said it is not true that Kenya lost Sh21 billion in a single transaction involving two dams.
“It is not possible, we run a competent government with competent with professionals. We are not running a casino, we are running a government. It is not true that in one transaction we can lose Sh21 billion,” added Ruto.
