ODM leader Raila Odinga has rubbished claims by some Rift Valley MPs that the anti-graft war spearheaded by President Uhuru Kenyatta is targeting their community.
Mr Odinga said the fight is not targeting a particular community, but individuals who have stolen public money, who must take responsibility.
Presiding over a fundraiser lunch for needy children at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa in Kangoya, Kiambu County, on Monday, Mr Odinga told the leaders to stop misleading Kenyans and allow the law to take its course.
He said when people take up government jobs, they serve in their individual capacity, and when the steal, they do it for themselves.
PROPAGANDA
“When people loot, they don’t do it so that they can share it with their communities, but to eat alone. Therefore, I want to tell politicians and members of Parliament who want to mislead Kenyans (that the anti-graft war is targeting their community) to stop it. Let everyone (who has stolen) carry their own cross,”
They should stop the propaganda that certain communities are being fought because I haven’t seen that happening. If your office is raided (by investigators) and it’s established that money has been stolen, you must take full responsibility,” Mr Odinga said.
Some Rift Valley leaders allied to Deputy President William Ruto, led by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, have claimed that the team leading the anti-corruption war is being used to unfairly target professionals from their community.
SHARPLY DIVIDED
He said the intention is to profile the community as corrupt, and with a plan to influence 2022 succession politics.
“The DCI, EACC, DPP and the Attorney-General should not turn the fight against corruption into a tool to ethnically profile some people and brand them corrupt. We will not allow it to happen … we will not sit back and allow you to ethnically profile our people with l vested interest, in bad faith and with politically motivated charges,” Mr Cherargei said in reaction to a weekend swoop that saw former Kenya Pipeline Manager Joe Sang and former National Hospital Insurance Fund head Simeon Kirgotty and several others arrested over allegations of corruption.
But Mr Odinga warned those who have looted public funds to brace to tough times because the war will not stop until people with insatiable appetites for public money are dealt with.
arrests split rift leaders
Kalenjin politicians on Monday sharply disagreed over the renewed fight against corruption as one group claimed members from the community were being targeted while the supported it, saying those implicated should face the law as individuals.
SETTLE SCORES
They were speaking a few days after Deputy President William Ruto asked institutions tasked with fighting graft to perform their duties objectively and avoid being used to settle political scores.
Addressing the press in Eldoret yesterday, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei and Aldai MP Cornelius Serem claimed that the war on corruption is targeting professionals from the community in a bid to scuttle Mr Ruto’s 2022 State House bid.
“We support the war against corruption but as leaders from the Rift Valley, we will stand with our professionals because the current war is being used by few individual to settle political scores,” Mr Cherargei claimed,
He also accused the DPP Noordin Haji and DCI boss George Kinoti of playing to the gallery, saying no one has been convicted since the arrests began.