Hundreds of suspects have been arraigned as the war on corruption gathers pace.
Many have lost their jobs, some jailed, while others have had their illegally acquired wealth repossessed by the State.
However, the manner in which the war has been fought, and the delays in concluding individual cases, have exposed the innocent to endless suffering with their future destroyed.
EVIDENCE
Take the case of the former Director of Kenya Wine Agencies Ltd (Kwal), Mr Charles Kizito Wanjala. For 13 years, he was a familiar figure in the corridors of justice.
He was appointed a non-executive director to the Kwal board in 2003, but on June 17, 2005, he was advised to step aside because there were issues under probe that directly implicated him.
A complaint had been lodged that he had used his office, as a director of Kwal, to improperly confer a benefit of Sh600,045 to himself by not remitting it to the company. The money was owed to Kwal by another firm.
Investigations were concluded six years later and on March 4, 2011, he was arrested. Three days later, he was charged with abuse of office.
The case was heard by different magistrates until February 8, 2018, when he was sentenced to pay a Sh500,000 fine or serve six months in prison in default.
On appeal, the sentence was set aside by High Court Judge Hedwig Ong’udi on December 5, 2018. She held that the case was prosecuted based on many assumptions that were not fully proved by the State.
“All in all, after analysing the evidence, I find that the prosecution did not prove its case to the required standard and I allow the appeal,” ruled Justice Ong’udi.
Mr Kizito says that, as a result of the malicious complaint, investigations, prosecution and the subsequent print and electronic media coverage, he suffered greatly. He could not get a job after being portrayed as corrupt.
EXPENSIVE
He also lost his salary when he was suspended from Kwal as his appointment was ultimately revoked on February 2, 2006.
Mr Kizito eventually got a job in Monrovia, Liberia, but it soon became too expensive for him because he had to personally attend court every time the matter was heard or mentioned.
Numerous leave requests
“It was costly because a return ticket cost approximately $2,500 (Sh250,000), and it shot to $4,000 when Ebola broke out in Liberia in August, 2013 and Kenya Airways stopped flying to West Africa. You could not get a direct flight and had to take a flight to North Africa, before getting a flight to Nairobi,” he says.
“Travelling was becoming too expensive just to attend court, sometimes just for a mention. I could not justify the numerous leave requests to attend mentions and hearings that lasted seven years, by three different magistrates. So I was fired,” Mr Kizito told the Nation.
In 2009, he was among those shortlisted for the position of commissioner with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, but his name was unceremoniously dropped because Parliament said they were looking for a person with integrity.
MALICIOUS
He tried to pay the amount in contention so that he could be cleared but the Ethics and Anti- Corruption Commission (EACC) declined.
Even though he has been cleared by the court, it pains Mr Kizito that he lost employment opportunities and spent most of his productive years fighting malicious charges. Now 64, he retired a poor man since he could not secure a job.
But the EACC is now seeking to change the experience Mr Kizito and many others have faced. During his swearing-in in January this year, the chief executive officer, Mr Twalib Mbarak, said he will remove all the procedural technicalities that might hamper the war on corruption.
He will also work closely with other players in the justice system to ensure graft cases are properly investigated and prosecuted.
“I ultimately envision a country that is hostile to corruption,” Mr Mbarak said