CORD Calls President Kenyatta a Hypocrite Over Speech

The coalition said that the speech delivered by President Kenyatta on Thursday was an attempt at whitewashing corruption and a move to compromise war on graft while purporting to be fighting it.

Speaking on Friday afternoon, Busia Women representative Florence Mutua who read the statement on behalf of CORD, said the coalition was challenging the President to "choose between playing politics with corruption and fighting it; between fighting opponents and supposed political enemies and saving his government and the country from the stifling grip of corruption".

"We want the President to fight corruption that he has agreed is pervasive. The war must begin within his own court and must bring down some of the very people who sit in counsel with him," said CORD.

Speaking at Capital Hill, the coalition said that the President himself is not beyond reproach.

CONFUSED INSTITUTION

"The Presidency itself is a leading suspect in the massive corruption scandals muzzling the nation. Top political leaders and technocrats in the Presidency have been linked to acts of bribery and collusion to defraud the public of money, land, playgrounds and procurements indecencies."

It added that, "In the President's speech, we see the clearest confirmation of what we have always suspected; the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) is a confused and compromised institution that can no longer be trusted to fight corruption."

CORD argued that EACC should arraign suspects in court and not report them secretly to the President, adding that a member of the Executive should have nothing to do with the EACC in the stipulated separation of powers.

By Maureen Murimi