{"id":120025,"date":"2025-08-20T07:08:49","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T07:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/08\/20\/maraga-slams-rutos-hollow-political-performance-on-graft\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T07:08:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T07:08:49","slug":"maraga-slams-rutos-hollow-political-performance-on-graft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/maraga-slams-rutos-hollow-political-performance-on-graft\/","title":{"rendered":"Maraga slams Ruto\u2019s \u2018hollow political performance\u2019 on graft"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 20 \u2014 Former Chief Justice David Maraga has dismissed President William Ruto\u2019s newly launched anti-corruption campaign as hypocritical, accusing the Head of State of bribing Members of Parliament for political gain while publicly castigating them for graft.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a statement issued by the David Maraga Presidential Campaign Secretariat, the former CJ alleged that Ruto had \u201cno moral authority\u201d to lecture Parliament on corruption, claiming the President has orchestrated some of the most extensive bribery schemes in Kenya\u2019s political history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen President William Ruto stood before the country and accused Members of Parliament of demanding money from governors, ministers, and other state officers appearing before them, he cracked open a door that those in power usually keep firmly shut,\u201d Maraga said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if the President can publicly point fingers at Parliament, then he must also open himself to the same scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maraga accused Ruto of bribing MPs during the controversial impeachment of his former deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, describing it as \u201cthe most diabolical bribing of MPs in Kenya\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cKenya\u2019s President bribes Parliament when he needs to use them as a pitchfork for his dark maneuvers, then insults and dismisses these same MPs when he has no use for them,\u201d Maraga declared. <\/p>\n

He further questioned the source of billions of shillings allegedly funneled by Ruto and his allies into schools, churches, and markets under the guise of \u201cempowerment funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNowhere in the national budget is there a clear line item allocating such billions for discretionary political giveaways,\u201d he noted. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the Sh44.8 billion reportedly stolen from the eCitizen platform? Or the millions wired to ghost schools? Or the billions swallowed in so-called renovations of government offices and State House facilities?\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Maraga, these were not \u201cmere accounting errors\u201d but large-scale thefts sustaining a vast political patronage network while millions of Kenyans remain in poverty.<\/p>\n

The former CJ unveiled a four-point plan he said Ruto must embrace to regain credibility in the war on graft. <\/p>\n

He urged the President to publicly account for empowerment funds, order investigations into the eCitizen scandal, ghost schools, and suspicious state renovations; revive high-profile corruption cases dropped during the Uhuru Kenyatta era; and suspend implicated officials until cleared.<\/p>\n

He also demanded that the anti-graft crusade extend beyond Parliament to the Executive, Judiciary, and parastatals.<\/p>\n

Maraga suggested that Kenya\u2019s leadership crisis may ultimately require a peaceful handover of power, likening the moment to President Daniel arap Moi\u2019s 2002 exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis country does not need to wait for a general election to bring in new hope. It is time for President Ruto to hand over the leadership baton peacefully to an incoming leadership that will reset the nation back to the ideals of the Constitution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His statement came just a day after Ruto unveiled an 11-member Multi-Agency Team on War Against Corruption (MAT) to spearhead a \u201cwhole-of-government\u201d approach to fighting graft.<\/p>\n

The MAT, chaired by the Executive Office of the President and supported by the Office of the Attorney General, includes the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), and several financial oversight agencies.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Ruto vowed to crack down on lawmakers accused of turning parliamentary committees into \u201cextortion rackets,\u201d warning that both bribe-takers and bribe-givers would face arrest. <\/p>\n

ODM leader Raila Odinga, who stood alongside him, echoed the concern, saying that lobbying had degenerated into \u201coutright extortion\u201d in Parliament, undermining governance and the business climate.<\/p>\n

But Maraga insisted that unless scandals within the Executive itself are addressed, Ruto\u2019s anti-graft campaign will remain \u201ca hollow political performance.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 20 \u2014 Former Chief Justice David Maraga has dismissed President William Ruto\u2019s newly launched anti-corruption campaign as hypocritical, accusing the Head of State of bribing Members of Parliament for political gain while publicly castigating them for graft. In a statement issued by the David Maraga Presidential Campaign Secretariat, the former CJ alleged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120025\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}