David Ndii explains Kenya Kwanza 'special' strategy of fighting corruption

Kenya Kwanza Economic Advisor David Ndii says that his political camp will prioritise fighting state capture as an ultimate way of dealing with graft if they clinch the presidency in the August Elections.

Ndii points out that the Deputy President William Ruto-led team will be focusing on strengthening the institutions so that they are given the power to battle corruption independently, something he says they believe has led to corruption.

“The structural cause of corruption is the state capture; we are going to start a state capture inquiry, question judicial inquiry,” he said in an interview with Citizen TV’s News Night show on Tuesday.

“We have talked about making IPPs transparent, we want the people to tell us, is our power sector captured? Are there attempts to capture our  Judiciary, or are our courts captured? It is not about an individual.”

Ndii argues that the Kenya Kwanza outfit would not be dwelling on people-based issues, as their rivals have been doing, but they would have gatekeepers who inform about the causes of corruption and those involved.

That way, Ndii says that they would be able to hand over those involved to the already strengthened institutions which would help them deal with the issue according to the law, without any interference from the government.

“We should put people out there, not us so that we are not told we are weaponizing; can you tell us how our institutions are captured and how do we insulate themn from capture?” he posed.

He added: “We want the people to do a report which traces the nexus between wealth and power that we believe is the heart of why people want to keep the state captured so that they can shake down investors, remain wealthy at the expense of others.”

In regard to why the faction has not been vocal in declaring its war on graft as its primary commitment, an issue that has led to criticism from the rival Azimio political camp, Ndii says even though it is a priority, they are focusing on the economy.

“We said we are not running on an anti-corruption ticket, we are running on a bottom-up economic platform. We are going to take all the corruption staff and offline it to people who are better equipped to deal with it to people who we don’t control,” he remarked.