AGEYO'S ANGLE: A free pass for economic terrorists, why?

The country is breathing a huge collective sigh of relief following the recapture of three terrorism convicts who escaped from Kamiti Maximum Security Prison on Monday.

Now, that was in many respects a record for security agencies in this country and I mean not just the recapture of the escapees but especially the speed, which was to say the least – surprising.

But that is not the speed I want to focus on. You see, just hours before this new development, the president cracked the whip. With uncharacteristic speed he fired the Commissioner General of Prisons, Wycliffe Ogalo and immediately replaced him with Brigadier Retired John Kibaso Warioba.

Again with breakneck speed, Kamiti officer in charge Charles Mutembei was arrested and in less than 24 hours was in court over the mysterious escape of Musharaf Abdalla, Mohammed Abikar and Joseph Juma Odhiambo from Kenya’s most guarded correctional facility.

Indeed, by now at least 16 prisons officers, including Mutembei and two inspectors, have been arraigned before the anti-terror court over this saga. So in less than three days, everything that could possibly be done to deal with the escape has been done. The top boss has been fired, the top officers are in court, the escapees have been recaptured and Kamiti prison has reviewed some of its security protocols – all in less than three days! Of course, this is laudable, after all the escape of a convict, is no small matter, and it is even more grave when the escapees in question are convicted terrorists.

But, I am torn between being relieved and being confused. Relieved because three dangerous men are safely back to prison where they belong, but confused because this is not the same speed with which the government swings into action as they say, when it comes to people I consider to be economic terrorists. And I will be specific here, with just one example. KEMSA, from where a multibillion shilling scandal rocked the country at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I call the COVID billionaires terrorists if for no other reason, because they chose a moment on national distress and crisis to profiteer. And just in case you have forgotten, the graft allegations at the medical supplies authority, revolve around the procurement of COVID-19 related medical equipment at inflated costs to the tune of over Ksh. 7 billion. Most of these overpriced items were still rotting at KEMSA warehouses the last time I checked, with the possibility of being sold at a loss of not less than Ksh.2 billion, or expiring altogether.

But just what have we have done about it? You see, when the scandal first came to light, the president himself spoke – he sounded resolute just the way he was when he spoke about the prison break. Except that unlike in the prison break case where his talk was swiftly followed by action, at KEMSA, it was followed by a long silence and a circus that continues to date.

On August 26th 2020, just days after the KEMSA scandal broke, a seemingly angry President Kenyatta gave investigative agencies a 21-day ultimatum to complete the probe and present a report of their findings. But more than one year later, those investigations are still being conducted – or so we believe.

In Septemeber last year, the Auditor General no less, found via a special audit, that KEMSA did not get value for money in the COVID-19 procurements. The report revealed that 97% of the supplies were still lying in the KEMSA warehouse despite an on-going pandemic and complaints from doctors and other frontline healthcare workers about the shortage of equipment. If that is not terrorism, I don’t know what is.

But still the EACC went ahead carried out some probe and ultimately handed over the files to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The DPP then appointed a team to review the KEMSA files and reportedly returned them to the EACC for further probe and the trail has since gone cold.

In Parliament, no less than three committees have conducted investigations into this one issue, the Senate Health Committee, the National Assembly Health Committee and the National Assembly Public Investements Committee. Who would forget the nightly soap opera about people passing by KEMSA offices, walking in and walking out with multi-billion shilling tenders and other abunwas-like tales!

It is now almost a year and a half since president issued that ultimatum. In that time, we have gone through not less than four waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds of thousands of people have contracted the disease, milllions have lost their jobs and businesses and more that 5000 people have lost their lives. Yet we are still investigating this scandal – somehow.

But at least now we know that the president and the government he leads can act swiftly if they want. I just wonder which prison the KEMSA billionaires need to escape from, for us to see real action.

That is my angle for the week.