Nairobi — President William Ruto has directed investigative agencies to expedite probe into Finland Scholarship graft allegations in Uasin Gishu county,
Speaking Wednesday when he presided over the official opening of the 10th Devolution conference in Eldoret, Ruto called on investigative agencies to step up their efforts in tackling corruption that has plagued the devolved units.
The directive comes hours after detectives arrested Uasin Gishu Senator Jackson Mandago over the embezzlement of funds earmarked for education expenses for some students estimated at Sh 1.1 billion.
The Head of State affirmed that no one will be exempt from accountability in the campaign against corruption, regardless of their status or position.
"Regardless of position, office or status any person implicated in the loss of public funds whether in the national or devolved government must encounter the punitive consequences of their action in full," he said.
The President lamented the far-reaching repercussions of corruption, which he says has led to inefficiency and negligence in public service delivery.
He highlighted that the concept of devolution was not intended to propagate corruption,
"As far as I can tell it was never the spirit or Intent of the people of Kenya to devolve corruption management, and malpractice to counties," Ruto said.
'Yet many counties have evolved into notorious epicenters of wanton looting with everyone from the executive to the county junior staff implicated in a wild free-for-all at the expense of essential service delivery."
He added that many innocent Kenyans are victimized undeserved or altogether neglected on a daily basis because of what he described as "devolved criminality."
The President stated that Kenyans deserve better services adding that his administration will do whatever it takes to end graft in counties.
"Counties must not become drivers of scandal, incubators of graft or embezzlement hubs," he said.
The President assured Kenyans of his commitment to enhancing good governance in the country.
To boost service delivery in counties, the Head of State challenged the county governments to embark on the journey of integrating digital solutions and ICT to service delivery and project implementation in the devolved units.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"I wish to submit to this conference that we have a proven hack, a smart solution to kill the two birds of poor governance and inefficient delivery of service with one stone and that hack is digitization and automation," Ruto stated.
Ruto said that his administration is ready to support all the county governments to digitise their service.
He added that he had instructed, the Interior Ministry and the ICT department to work with counties to automate their services.
"If you need support in matters of a raising revenue, digitizing the revenue space, we are going to work with you so that as we digitize services or collection of the taxes at Kenya Revenue Authority(KRA) and other areas we are ready to work with the County's to make sure that we support the County's hours as is required of Us by the law," he added.
