Dozens protest Kenya's corruption "pandemic"

Dec 04, 2015 Protesters in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi recently marched to the Supreme Court buildings demanding that authorities take tougher stands against corruption.

The group said they had collected 8000 signatures from Kenyans demanding that graft should be declared a national disaster. The petition also called for the protection of whistle blowers.

Speaking during the protest, Hussein Khalid, a human rights activist said:

“We want to commend the president’s recent move to lead the fight against corruption. He has shifted his cabinet, he has brought in some new people, and those who were suspected of corruption have been shown the door so that is fantastic. But we are saying that is not enough, we need to see more. First we are saying that the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) needs to be fully constituted; we need to see them taking serious cases we do not want to see the big fish being spared. Secondly, we want to see the judiciary to act fast and address cases of corruption that are presented before it,”

The protesters, who were led by rights activist Boniface Mwangi, presented their petition to the Chief Justice, Willy Mutunga outside Supreme Court buildings.

“We are currently being killed by a pandemic that affects all 44 million of us… that pandemic is corruption. AIDS is no longer a national disaster. Corruption is a national disaster, killing more people than AIDS, Malaria and terrorism combined,” Mwangi said.

With a long a history of multi-million dollar corruption scandals being swept under the carpet, Jimmy Eddie, another protester said:

“All our leaders both on the government side and on the opposition side are stealing in their large numbers and they are stealing money not thinking about an ordinary mwananchi (citizen) who took time to go and lineup for hours to vote them in. They are not considering in Nairobi right now there are very many people who are homeless because they do not have basic provisions,”