Seizing Corruption, Funding the Future: What Kenya Can Learn from Global Accountability

The question Kenyans should be asking is not radical, ideological, or unrealistic. It is profoundly practical: if powerful states can seize illicitly held wealth and redirect it toward public purpose, why can’t we? When the United Kingdom moved to freeze and force the sale of assets linked to a Russian oligarch, including Chelsea Football Club, and signaled that the proceeds would be redirected toward supporting Ukraine’s defense and reconstruction, it demonstrated something Kenya has long pretended is impossible, real accountability with material consequences. Not speeches. Not task forces. Not promises. Consequences.

Kenya is not short of money. It is short of political will. For decades, the country has hemorrhaged public resources through corruption, inflated procurement, opaque public-private partnerships, dubious infrastructure contracts, and outright theft. Every Kenyan knows the names of scandals—Goldenberg, Anglo Leasing, NYS, Arror and Kimwarer dams, COVID-19 procurement fraud, and the endless trail of questionable infrastructure loans whose costs balloon long after the ground has stopped breaking. What is less discussed is the glaring contradiction at the heart of our fiscal policy: the state relentlessly taxes ordinary citizens while treating stolen public wealth as untouchable.

The UK’s handling of oligarch assets exposes this contradiction. The principle behind the action was simple: wealth acquired through or sustained by injustice, aggression, or abuse of power does not deserve protection. Property rights are not absolute when they shield harm. The state asserted that legality without legitimacy is meaningless. Kenya, by contrast, clings to a shallow legalism that protects corrupt wealth as long as it is cleverly laundered through contracts, shell companies, or political office.

Kenya’s Constitution already provides a strong foundation for asset recovery. Chapter Six on leadership and integrity, the Public Finance Management Act, and the powers of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission all envision a state that can trace, freeze, and recover illicit wealth. What is missing is not law, but courage. Asset recovery in Kenya is often slow, selective, and deliberately underpowered. Cases drag on for years. Evidence “disappears.” Courts issue endless injunctions. Meanwhile, the beneficiaries of corruption enjoy their wealth openly, invest it abroad, or recycle it back into politics.

The result is a perverse system where crime pays better than honesty. A teacher, nurse, or small business owner is squeezed through punitive taxes, rising fees, and shrinking public services, while individuals who stole billions face little more than reputational inconvenience. This is not a failure of capacity; it is a failure of moral clarity. Accountability that never reaches property is not accountability at all.

Imagine a different approach. Imagine if Kenya treated corruptly acquired wealth as a national emergency rather than a legal nuisance. Imagine if stolen assets were aggressively seized, liquidated, and transparently redirected into a National Infrastructure Fund dedicated to public goods such hospitals, schools, water systems, affordable housing, renewable energy, and public transport. Not through debt. Not through new taxes. But through restitution.

Such a move would do more than fund infrastructure. It would fundamentally alter political incentives. Corruption thrives because the rewards are high and the risks are low. Change that equation, and behavior changes. When politicians and connected elites know that stolen wealth will not only be recovered but publicly repurposed for national development, corruption becomes less attractive and more dangerous. Accountability stops being symbolic and becomes structural.

Critics will argue that Kenya is not the UK, that our institutions are weaker, our courts slower, our politics more compromised. That is precisely the point. Weak institutions are not strengthened by resignation; they are strengthened by use. The answer to institutional fragility is not surrender, but reform driven by pressure and precedent. Kenya does not need perfection to begin. It needs seriousness.

Others will warn about investor confidence, claiming that aggressive asset seizures could scare away capital. This argument is both dishonest and tired. Investors are not afraid of accountability; they are afraid of unpredictability. What truly scares capital is a system where corruption is normalized, contracts are inflated, and public debt is looted. A country that demonstrates a clear, rules-based approach to asset recovery sends a powerful signal: this is a place where law matters, where theft has consequences, and where public interest comes first.

The deeper issue is philosophical. Kenya has normalized the idea that corruption is inevitable, that theft is part of politics, and that recovery is unrealistic. This is a lie sold to protect those who benefit from the status quo. Other countries have shown that stolen wealth can be traced, frozen, seized, and repurposed. It is difficult, yes. It is politically costly, yes. But it is possible.

The UK’s action against oligarch assets was not just about foreign policy; it was about redefining responsibility. Wealth does not exist in a vacuum. It is embedded in systems—legal, political, economic. When those systems are abused, wealth loses its moral claim to protection. Kenya must internalize this lesson. Public money stolen through corrupt systems is not private property. It is deferred development. It is unpaid nurses. It is classrooms without books. It is roads that collapse and hospitals that kill.

A National Infrastructure Fund funded through recovered assets would also force transparency. Every seized asset, every liquidation, every project funded would be publicly traceable. Citizens would see the direct link between accountability and development. Corruption would no longer be an abstract moral failure; it would be visibly reversed into schools, clinics, and roads.

Real accountability is not about rhetoric. It is about redistribution, from theft back to the public. It is about making corruption unprofitable and development tangible. Kenya does not lack examples. It lacks resolve.

If other nations can seize oligarch wealth in the name of justice and public interest, Kenya has no excuse for protecting looters while taxing the poor. Accountability is not a slogan. It is a policy choice. And until Kenya makes that choice, every promise of development will remain hollow.