TI's Global Corruption Report 2007

Collins Mbalo looks through another bad report from Transparency International which this year focuses on the judiciary. While bemoaning the great mistakes that the Kibaki government, this article also gives it credit for the many changes that have been undertaken in the last year, and hopes for a contiunation along the reform path.

More here.

What is irrevocable cannot be revoked

Could we be on the verge of cracking the Anglo-Leasing case? Over the last two weeks, MPs have twice discussed the irrevocable promissory notes issued to the fictitious credit providers associated with the 18 contracts.

And now the Daily Nation reports that the Ministry of Finance has contracted Price Waterhouse Coopers, who over the past few months have been engaged in forensic inquiries into the 18 so called Anglo Leasing type contract. My instinct, suspicious fellow that I am is to call this a clever diversion away from the real problem. That serious people are beginning to ask serious questions about the irrevocable promissory notes issued by the Government of Kenya to the tune of Ksh 56.33 billion, to fictitious credit providers. The PWC contract is in my view a red herring that should worry Kenyans for several reasons.

Mwalimu Mati, formerly of Transparency International reviews the case of the irrevocable promissory notes that the Kenya govt. signed over in the 18 anglo-leasing related cases. Read the rest here.

Positive Developments on the Corruption Front

Most Kenyans, at least those who know something about most things, will have greeted the appointment of Richard Leakey to the headship of the local Transparency International Chapter with skepticism.

Kenyans may also look at the mainstream Kenyan media and its abdication of its duty as the public watchman and despair. The newspapers, the radio stations and the television stations have taken such strident biased positions that the mwananchi would be better served paying little attention to its fictions.

Such Kenyans would be encouraged then to know that no matter how poor a job Leakey does at TI, or how compromised he is seen to be from the start or what Transparency International now stands for, it having gained a reputation for being kinder to the government than the government's own agencies; there are now other guardians of the public purse.
The new organization set up around former TI head Mwalimu Mati is one of these. Mars Kenya which runs a website that tracks and catalogs governance and corruption issues.

The team at Mars Kenya has proved to be more responsive than your average Kenyan organization, responding to email and showing an all around better grasp of Kenyan issues than the average Kenyan organization. In addition to the information on their website, the organization also publishes books that seek to hold the government accountable to the public. Among these is one on an Anglo-Leasing type contract worth 39 million US$ surrounding the VSAT project at Postal Corporation of Kenya while another one of these highlights the mystery of the missing irrevocable Promissory Notes given to Anglo Leasing and Finance Limited by the Government of Kenya.

Read more on this from kenyaImagine's Stephen Wanyama.