Ambassador criticises ‘irresponsible’ MPs

Japan’s Ambassador to Kenya Morihisa Aoki on Wednesday decried as “irresponsible” those Kenyan MPs who last week voted against a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the government introduce new anti-corruption measures, the ‘East African Standard’ newspaper reported. The outgoing Japanese envoy said his government was unhappy with the Kenyan parliament’s rejection of the bill, which sought to pave the way for the reestablishment of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) and open the door to millions of dollars of donor funding. Speaking at a meeting with Vocational Training Minister Isaac Ruto, Aoki praised the Kenyan government for recent improvements in transparency and accountability in its budget spending, and said Japan felt “obliged” to assist the East African country.

President Daniel arap Moi last week announced the establishment of a new police unit to tackle corruption, saying it would ensure that 132 cases formerly being handled by the country’s defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) would be investigated and “concluded expeditiously”. The announcement came on Wednesday 15 August, a day after Kenyan MPs voted down the constitutional amendment bill, which opposition groups criticised as window-dressing that would only allow for anti-corruption measures that were too weak and defective to achieve anything. Although the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has tied the release of an estimated US $317 million of funding to progress on anti-corruption and privatisation measures outlined in Kenya’s economic reform programme, Moi said the government would continue to follow its IMF-approved poverty reduction programme.