New ‘coalition’ agrees to pass corruption bills

President Daniel arap Moi on Tuesday chaired the first joint meeting between parliamentary members of his Kenya African National Union (KANU) party and its new coalition partner, the National Development Party (NDP), Kenyan Radio reported. In a cabinet reshuffle in June, Moi appointed Raila Odinga, leader of the NDP, as Energy Minister and NDP member Adhu Owiti as Planning Minister. Two other members of the NDP became junior ministers, in what was the first time since Moi came to power in 1978 that KANU has been joined in cabinet by another party.
Once openly critical of the Moi government, the NDP has been in a loose alliance with it for more than a year, and has supported government bills in parliament since the last general election in 1997. KANU Secretary-General Joseph Kamotho said afterwards that the two parties, partners in cabinet, had agreed to ensure all bills before the House were passed, including an anti-corruption and economic crimes bill, and a public service code of conduct and ethics, according to Kenyan radio.

Late last year the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discontinued aid to Kenya because of its failure to fulfil promises on tackling corruption and privatising the economy. The Fund’s senior Resident Representative in Nairobi told IRIN last month that Kenya’s economic reform programme was important for the country, and that “a fundamental pillar” of this was governance. The main issues involved, he said, were: the need for a constitutional amendment to re-establish the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) within a legal framework; the need for legislation dealing with corruption and economic crimes; and the need for a code of conduct for all three branches of government - the executive, legislature and judiciary.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 10 professional and civil society organisations on Monday called on the Kenyan Attorney-General, Amos Wako, to withdraw two bills that seek to re-establish the KACA, saying they were faulty, contained some unacceptable provisions and should not be passed by parliament in their current form. The group cited six “major anomalies” in the Constitutional Amendment Bill and called it unworkable, according to news reports. The organisations also strongly opposed a provision in the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Bill to allow an amnesty for crimes committed before December 1997, and said both bills had the potential for conflict between the Attorney-General and KACA in the execution of their duties.