Showing posts with label Justice Aaron Ringera. Show all posts

Justice Aaron Ringera Finally Resigns

Posted on 30 September, 2009

After taking Kenya in endless circles of debate, embattled KACC director has finally resigned. Kenya Parliament has earlier on in the month censured him by revoking a Kenya Gazette notice by President Mwai Kibaki reappointing him for another five year term.

In parliament eyes, Ringera was never reappointed, that is, his tenure at KACC ended when his earlier term ended. The resignation is just to save face and borrow dignity for a while.

There are already unconfirmed reports that he will get a soft landing as a judge of the highest court in Kenya, the Court of Appeal. Some parliamentarians have vowed to make sure he does not get the judge job since he is already a retired judge.

His resignation gives more power to parliament over the excesses of the executive and the President will be more keen next time to follow due process when making executive appointments.

It is interesting that to many Kenyans, Ringera's tenure at KACC exemplifies impunity in way of protecting the big 'fish' who are corrupt embodied in such corruption scandals as the Goldenberg and Anglo-leasing amidst numerous multi-billion scams. Most of these scams have renowned parliamentarians as the architects and beneficiaries. The same parliamentarians that showed Ringera the exit door.

Ringera reared and protected pythons that have finally come to haunt and strangle him. If he had zealously guarded Kenya's wealth from these scams and pursued them corrupt MPs and politicians' sidekicks with all his might, exposing them, freezing their corrupt assets, instituting private prosecutions where the attorney general refuses to prosecute, maybe things will be different.

Ringera walks out of KACC a tainted man in the public eyes of Kenya. If he was a man of integrity and good community standing before, he has lost it in a matter of weeks. If he is getting a soft landing as a court of appeal judge, his illustrious career will be crucified in a muddy cross.

All in all, there are no sympathies, it is good riddance for Ringera. Hopefully the 2.5 million Kenya Shillings will go to a Kenyan man or woman of integrity and zeal to better our motherland. Just pray it is not Dr Smokin Wanjala or Fatuma Sichale, for they will prolong Ringera's tenure and legacy at KACC.

Next on line is none other than the ever smiling Amos Wako, the Attorney General that Kenya will greatly and gladly do without.
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Nairobi Star: Kenya Anti Corruption Commission Advisory Board to fundraise for Ringera job adverts

Posted on 24 September, 2009

DEFIANT Kenya Anti Corruption Commission Advisory Board now plans to raise funds within its membership to put up newspaper adverts seeking to replace embattled Justice Aaron Ringera.

This follows a flat refusal by Ringera on Tuesday to sanction the payment of adverts setting the process for his replacement together with that of his assistant director Fatuma Sichale and former assistant director Dr Smokin Wanjala.

Ringera, who is the chief accounting officer of the anti-graft body and who also serves as the secretary to the board, has insisted that there is no vacancy to be filled as the President had already re-appointed the trio.

"We are considering the prospects of us raising the money to pay for these adverts because he has refused to pay for them. He is the only link we have to the KACC secretariat and when he refuses to cooperate, it's a tricky affair," a member of the board said.

The board member told The Star that it is very critical that the board sets in motion the process to replace the three to offset claims of inaction and complicity in the President's action to appoint them.

The source also talked of the board's encounter with Ringera on Tuesday evening. "We felt ambushed because we had met to give notice of an intended meeting where the issue of the adverts was to be discussed only for him to pull a fast one on us."

The board will meet again on Thursday next week when the fund raising deal would be discussed. The adverts had already been approved for placement in two dailies tomorrow.

Parliament said it looks up to the board to fill the posts which it considers vacant.
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Nairobi Star: MPs may stall Treasury over Ringera saga

DEVELOPMENT projects and government salaries for the second half of the year could be frozen if Parliament makes good on its threat to delay or throw out the appropriations Bill, Treasury has said.

Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta said yesterday Treasury will table the bill when Parliament resumes duty on November 10 but it will be up to MPs to approve it.

MPs have threatened to shoot down the bill to pro-test against the re-appointment of Justice Aaron Ring-era as Director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission. But Uhuru said the issue should be dealt with in isolation without forcing government operations to shut down.

"As we are dealing with the situation that does not mean the whole country has to grind to a halt," Uhuru said. "The government is currently operating on the vote on account."

Uhuru was speaking after signing exchange notes with the Japanese government for a Sh830 million non-project aid.

The vote on account allows government to spend 50 per cent of its tabled budget for the year with the rest being subjected to parliamentary vote through the Appropriations Bill.

"Once the 50 per cent is exhausted, that is that. It means that development programmes will have to be stopped, salaries will have to be stopped," the minister added.

Government is this year working with a Sh860 billion budget meaning so far it is working with about Sh400 billion. Part of the money is yet to be raised through government borrowing programmes.

Uhuru however asked Parliament to pass the Appropriations Bill to allow for government to implement stimulus programmes.
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John Michuki on another 'Executive' Mandate

Posted on 14 September, 2009

John Michuki is the Minister for Environment and a close ally of President Kibaki.

Today he was asked by some journalist about his opinion regarding Parliament's planned veto on presidential appointment. The Kenya Parliament is set to retract the appointment of Justice Aaron Ringera by President Kibaki.

Michuki's opinion was also sought on House Speaker Kenneth Marende's decision to allow such debate to take place.

This is what John Michuki had to say:

The executive should be left alone to carry out its mandate. It should be allowed to carry out its development programme without interference. It is on that basis that people will decide whether to send it (executive) home or give it further mandate.
Is Kibaki sight trained to beyond 2012?
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David Makali: Ringera, why are you clinging to this job?

Posted on 07 September, 2009

I have come to the conclusion that the biggest obstacle to just governance and the rule of law in Kenya today is squarely one of a dishonest President. In almost every social and political crisis that has befallen us since 2003, ineffectual leadership and mischief motivated by political expediency is self-evident.

And the stalemate over the illegal re-appointment of Justice Aaron Ringera and his cast of pretenders to office is but the latest example. It recalls the circus that the country was taken through by Samuel Kivuitu's discredited Electoral Commission, and the fallout in the Narc government after 2002 elections.

In the case of the ECK, the President invoked his imperial executive powers to appoint commissioners contrary to established tradition and a standing gentleman's agreement he had benefited from. The straight inference was that he had appointed commissioners to serve his interests. And no measure of public protests could drive sense either into the President or the beneficiaries.

The consequence was that the ECK lost its credibility way before going into the elections and set the stage for political conflict. Come the elections and the ECK's general conduct only vindicated those who believed it had been conscripted in an ulterior scheme to return a particular result.

The chaos was predictable. Yet, despite driving the country to the brink of civil war, none of the disgraced commissioners felt conscientious enough to resign. They took a bleeding country through the court to defend their bloody contracts and terms of service and extract their dues without a sense of responsibility. I hear they were all paid over Sh20 million each!

Now flip to Ringera & Co; another bunch of people we have all along believed to be decent and honourable enough to obey the law. But now they are sitting tight as controversy rages about the circumstances of their appointment. I ask, do these people have any conscience? I must remind them that the English verb "re-sign" was coined precisely for circumstances such as they find themselves in.

By refusing to resign — or in this case insisting on taking up their illegal appointments — they have proved themselves to be not just morally bankrupt but accomplices in breaking the law, which is in itself a bad statement on their competence and integrity.

No, it is not a matter of different interpretation of the law. Nor can they take refuge in the fact that they have only been appointed and the person answerable is the President. They are accountable to the people of Kenya because they are the direct beneficiaries of an action which has been shown to be clearly mischievous, fraudulent and illegal.

icy cannot pretend that they have been appointed against their will, because they lobbied for those jobs. They cannot pretend that something disastrous will befall the country if they are not in those offices. This country has more than enough qualified people of high integrity who can perform those duties, if not better.

Because of your studious silence, we must begin to speculate about why you have been appointed in such a manner. We must begin to wonder what considerations have exchanged hands or pledges have been made to the appointing authorities.

We have to wonder whether your conduct has anything to do with the contents of the book "It Is Our Time To Eat". We must ask what it is you have been doing the last five years that you are scared of leaving office, or why President Kibaki feels he needs you in the office five more years when no one else has said so. Not Parliament. Not the Advisory Board.

We must ask why you are so desperate to keep these jobs, despite your high qualifications. This country specialises in obfuscation of facts to suit partisan interests and political expediency. But in your case, the illegality of your backdoor appointment and the dishonesty of your acceptance, is daylight fraud and breach of procedure. It reeks of political corruption, the kind you are charged with investigating.

'The arguments advanced in your favour by political sycophants cannot reverse the precedent set by the re-appointment of your colleague, Dr John Mutonyi. Your continuing occupation of those offices is insulting to the intelligence of Kenyans and a scar on your own character, integrity and social standing.

We look up to you to resign, step down or reject the appointments.

David Makali is a media consultant.
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Wycliffe Muga: Ringera's job isn't about graft war

Posted on 03 September, 2009

For a while, it seemed we were headed for quiet times. The Shinyalu and Bomachoge by-elections had been peacefully concluded. And the controversy over the proposed Mau evictions was at last heading towards a humane resolution.

But instead, political temperatures have risen. And this time it is over the reappointment of Justice Aaron Ringera as the Director-General of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.

Judging by what newspaper readers and TV viewers have to say, it seems a majority are outraged at this decision. Justice Ringera is widely considered to have failed to deliver, and many want to see his quick exit.

I think a lot of this anger is misplaced. I would say Justice Ringera should be allowed to keep his job, provided only that he goes further than the KACC's advisory board on the pro-posed salary reduction.

The proposed reduction of the director general's salary by 35 per cent does not go far enough.

What Ringera should do is accept a pay cut of 75 per cent, and then cling to his appointment letter, having made it clear he is not in it for the money. He would still be left with some Sh625,000 a month, which is still a huge salary for a purely ceremonial job.

The point which most critics seem to ignore is that Ringera's position has little to do with fighting corruption. This director-general-ship, like the other grand title in this field, The Permanent Secretary for Governance and Ethics — held briefly by the fabled John Githongo — is part of the elaborate window-dressing the government set up a few years ago to appease the donors by suggesting something was being done about corruption.

Which is not to say that anybody is actually fooled by this eyewash. But rather that it provides something that can be mentioned in speeches when the government is defending itself from accusations of not being serious about corruption. And the proof that this is the case was provided by Ringera himself, when he spoke on numerous occasions of the lack of teeth which faced the KACC, and how his commission was helpless to use the evidence they had of economic crimes, since he had no powers of prosecution.

John Githongo likewise, after realising that he was getting nowhere, unilaterally changed his job description from that of adviser to His Excellency the President on Ethics and Governance to that of a spy-at-large. In this new role, he recorded private discussions which would later enable him to betray friend and colleagues who were foolish enough to speak plainly, because they trusted him.

I once knew someone who held a senior appointment at one of our diplomatic missions abroad, and was congratulating him on having scaled the heights of diplomatic service, when he told me that there really wasn't that much to it. Most of what he did was just to hang out, he said.

And Justice Ringera's job is really no different. He basically just hangs out. And those naive enough to be taken in by the elaborate pretense that this job has something to do with fighting corruption have only themselves to blame if they find that nothing of that kind is happening.

Mind you, these positions which allow the holder to hang out for a period of some three very pleasant years or so are among the most sought after in the whole country. And any politician of stature will have a whole troop of hangers-on determined to somehow get to hang out at taxpayers' expense for the next three years. Some manage this by getting diplomatic postings to non-crucial friendly states. Others get to serve on commissions of inquiry of one kind or another.

There was a time when even the CEOs of state corporations were appointed mostly from the ranks of such hangers-on. But that is not so frequent these days of performance contracts. In addition, boards of directors have learned to assert them-selves, just as the advisory board of the KACC is now doing in opposing the presidential appointment.

How far they will get with this defiance remains to be seen. But the outcome actually does not matter, once you realise this position is of no real significance, and that it hardly matters at all who holds it.

If Justice Ringera will agree to a 75 per cent pay-cut just to assure us that personal greed is not what drives him he should be allowed to keep his job.

Wycliffe Muga comments on topical issues.
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