Busia Governor Sospeter Ojaamong has urged the government to procure services of foreign investigators to tame the runaway corruption bedeviling the country.
Ojaamong said the local investigators could not be trusted with investigations involving wealthy individuals in the country hence the need for a special foreign team.
“How can you trust a Kenyan police officer who is ‘hungry’ to arrest and investigate a Governor, a Cabinet Secretary, Deputy President or the President who has all the resources at his disposal? Won’t they take a bribe and release us on the way?” Ojaamong asked amid laughter from the public.
The Governor who was speaking at Angurai in Teso North Sub County during International Women day Celebration on Friday urged the public not just to join the anti-corruption crusade blindly as a majority of the leaders preaching the anti-corruption gospel were the ones who have engaged in looting before.
“The best way to deal with the vice is through a lifestyle audit. Let each individual come out, tell us when they started working, how much they have been earning and what property they own. All the excess property should be impounded.
Ojaamong cited a case of the National Youth Service scandal where the actual looters went scot free at the expense of junior staff.
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s wife Ida told the gathering that what is going on in the country currently is no longer corruption but theft of public coffers.
“If those who have been implicated in various scandals have the interest of the public at heart, they should return what they have stolen, ask for forgiveness and go home. You cannot steal public money then ask us to present evidence yet we don’t work in those respective offices,” she said.
Odinga attributed the many challenges facing the country such as lack of medicine in health facilities, hunger, poor road network, and water scarcity to corruption.
By Melechezedeck Ejakait
