Anti-graft body warns over voter bribery
Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission vice chairperson Irene Keino (left) during a news conference in Nairobi's flanked by CEO Halakhe Dida Waqo. EACC has warned it will crackdown on voter bribery ahead of the March 4 General Election. ANTHONY OMUYA
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has warned it will crackdown on voter bribery ahead of the March 4 General Election.
The EACC said Friday it will not spare politicians or voters found engaging in the electoral malpractice saying those culpable will be prosecuted.
Describing the current campaign period as a corruption peak period, commission vice chairperson Irene Keino said the agency had set up hotlines where Kenyans can report bribery cases.
The numbers are: 0733520641 and 0727285663.
The commission will also partner with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in observing the election to monitor bribery.
The commission’s staff will also not be spared and are set to undergo a vetting process to maintain integrity.
The exercise is in line with constitutional requirements of integrity of public officers. There has been concern that commission staff is vetting leaders when they are yet to undergo the process themselves.
“As required by law, a vetting tool has been finalised and vetting of staff will start in mid-February, this will ensure that only staff members who meet the integrity bar will be retained at EACC,” said Ms Keino.
At Friday's briefing, the commission said it was concerned following the recent release by Parliament of Sh10 billion to constituencies through the Constituency Development Fund kitty, coming just before the election.
In a bid to prevent any cases of misuse of the funds, the anti-corruption team trained CDF managers and staff running the kitty on measures to uphold to safeguard the funds. They were warned that they would be held liable should any misappropriation occur and trained on the need to uphold ethical conduct.
The commission has derived new strategies with regard to CDF monitoring which includes partnership with the National Taxpayers Association, an agency that conducts an annual audit of all CDF projects. The anti-graft team has set up teams to investigate malpractices in some of the cases of CDF management.
According to the vice chair, the latest approach is more proactive and involves having officers on the ground to pre-empt any misappropriation before it occurs.
