Do you remember the debate that President Uhuru Kenyatta once brought about the life style audits of political leaders? Didn’t it rise speculations from his Deputy William Ruto’s camp?
Speculations arose this year when President Kenyatta called for lifestyle audits of political leaders, with DP Ruto’s camp claiming that the calls were targeting the DP.
The people allied to the DP argued that if the president was for the life style audit, then it was to start from the lifestyle of his own father, the first President of the Republic of Kenya Mzee Jomo Kenyatta, which the President accepted.
On Wednesday October 31, 2018, President Kenyatta, who was speaking during the KR Awards at KICC directed KRA to carry out a lifestyle audit on government officials who were ‘living big’ and paying less taxes.
His directions came as a move to tackle tax evaders but the questions of whether ‘China’ was at his neck remained unswered.
However, on the same day, Machakos governor Alfred Mutua asked President Kenyatta to fast-track lifestyle audits. Mutua said nothing much is heard of the audits nowadays and urged Uhuru to intervene.
“I am urging Kenyatta to ensure that the lifestyle audits are done. We started well as a country by calling for lifestyle audits but we no longer hear of [them],” he said.
Mutua addressed the press outside his office in Machakos town.
“Some prominent people have transferred their stolen title deeds to their househelps so that their family members do not get traced to the properties,” he said.
Mutua however said the audit and war on corruption should not be turned into a political witch-hunt.
The governor said he was happy to have been cleared by the Director of Public Prosecutions after he was accused of irregularly buying vehicles for his cabinet.
“We saved the county a lot of money. It is important that the investigative organs are left to do their work. We spent only Sh35 million out of Sh140 million that had been allocated,” Mutua said.
Will these lifestyle audits being advocated for really curb corruption in the country?