CS Anne Waiguru vows to fight on amid resignation calls

Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru has vowed to stay put despite growing pressure from the opposition CORD for her to step aside.

Speaking on Citizen TV’s The Big Question show, Waiguru said that the current allegations of corruption at the National Youth Service (NYS) have nothing to do with her as a person hence it would be insensible for her to quit.

“The issue of stepping aside is dependent on whether or not an individual has been directly implicated in a corruption scandal, which I have not,” she said.

Waiguru noted that she is the one who notified the Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to look into the suspicious transactions at NYS saying the case under investigation is a cyber-crime issue being handled by the DCI and Cyber Crime Unit.

“People do not step aside because they have been asked to. I am the whistleblower of the alleged scandal at NYS and do not understand how I have turned to be the victim in this issue,” the CS said.

She mentioned that there is no government institution that is not embedded in corruption adding that there are cases which are untraceable due to the large number of staff.

“There is no institution that is not touched in one way or another by corruption. Not even the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC),” she said.

Central Bank requested for clarity

Waiguru noted that since she does not have power to suspend ministry officials, she has facilitated the transfer of those suspected of engaging in corruption with those linked to the password theft being blocked from the system in order not to compromise investigations.

The CS further stated that the 826 million scandal at the NYS has been politicized saying there is need to wait for relevant bodies to investigate the matter and come up with recommendations.

She also revealed that no money was lost in the alleged transactions adding that the CBK letter, which sparked allegations of corruption at her Ministry, only requested to clarify details of certain payment to a supplier.

“The letter from CBK sought clarification on whether the payment that my Ministry was making to a supplier was legitimate.”

“Investigation is on the use of the password and not that we’ve lost money. The DCI has cleared one transaction out of the 826m with investigating into the other, where a password was stolen ongoing.”

She also blamed the media for funneling corruption allegations that are unfounded saying they have thwarted several corruption cases without highlighting the achievement in the media.

“We do not rush to the media with investigations all the time, unless there are allegations in public domain that we have to clarify to prevent them from getting out of hand.”

Waiguru was responding to calls by CORD coalition asking her to resign over allegations of corruption at the Ministry of Devolution and the NYS.