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Wanjala tells why he opted to quit
Smokin Wanjala resigned as deputy director at KACC on Friday afternoon.
By DOMINIC WABALA
September 19 2009 at 19:55
The resignation of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) assistant director, Dr Smokin Wanjala, on Friday afternoon was not without drama and intrigue.
Despite attempts by his colleagues, including the embattled KACC director Justice Aaron Ringera who pleaded with Dr Wanjala not to resign until he returns from an official trip abroad, the former University of Nairobi lecturer bowed out anyway.He even ignored many others who made phone calls urging him to stay put.
Several legislators were concerned that he was turning down a very well paying job but others called to congratulate him for the bold move.
Presidential Legal Adviser Prof Kibutha Kibwana, and nominated MP Amina Abdalla too called him after his resignation.Before the announcement and, as the debate raged on, one legislator is reported to have approached Dr Wanjala with a proposition to assist him lobby for support in Parliament but turned down the offer.
"It was a personal decision that did not need consulting. I did not consult because the decision I was about to make was personal. I did not consult because I had arrived at a decision which I did not want to be clouded.
"I had to bite the bullet and live with the consequences. I made it for my family and the country. The country is bigger than any one of us. KACC is bigger than anyone of us," Dr Wanjala told theSunday Nation on Saturday. And after the announcement, Dr Wanjala accompanied by his younger brother David had to deal with a number of phones calls.
Resignation letter
The renowned legal academic said he made his decision to quit on Thursday afternoon and wrote his resignation letter, which he then sent to State House before informing his colleague Ms Fatuma Sichale on Friday morning. For Dr Wanjala, it was the legitimacy not the legality of his appointment that informed his decision to resign.
"The motion in Parliament, whether right or wrong, made a decision that the appointment was illegal. My continued stay in office had been delegitimised. Legitimacy is as important as legality. How was I to report to a Parliament which believes that I am in office illegally?" posed Dr Wanjala.
The former deputy director at KACC said his decision to resign was informed by several factors. "The first is, the re-appointment by the President immediately put the nation on some kind of hypnosis. It became an issue that has galvanised public opinion.
Relevant issues
"Nobody was now addressing the relevant issues about corruption and there was danger therefore that if that continued, the five years I was at KACC would completely have be in vain... The focus was lost," Dr Wanjala said in an exclusive interview.
He said equally important issues that should have engaged the minds of law makers, opinion leaders, policy makers had also been relegated to the periphery.
Dr Wanjala says important issues like the constitution review process which has engaged the country for the last 20 years, the current drought, the Mau forest issue, and suffering of Kenyans was being relegated as the debate continued.
He noted even the positive things happening in the country were being lost as the re-appointment debate took centre stage. "It could have made people believe that Kenya is on fire. Those who think that Kenya is a failed state are wrong but then it could have been believed," Dr Wanjala said.
Major cases
He, however, believes KACC performed well according to its mandate and investigated corruption cases and recommended for prosecution many major cases. The international law doctorate holder says a lot of preventive recovery and intervention work has been done by KACC but the public might not be appreciating it because it is not directly attributed to KACC.
He says Parliament has also failed to pass bills that empower the commission and instead weakened the institution while there have been many court interventions blocking KACC from investigating cases such as Anglo Leasing and the Goldenberg scandals.
Dr Wanjala is urging Parliament to strengthen KACC instead of criticising it. He believes KACC will come out of this stronger than ever.
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/660548/-/item/0/-/u1xxov/-/index.html
