Analysis: Problems facing EACC are not new

Kenya's anti-corruption chiefs never seem to last particularly long. This is worrying, according to Mr Samuel Kimeu, the Executive Director of Transparency International-Kenya.

“Without commissioners, the secretariat at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission cannot be called a commission and the work that they do can be challenged legally,” he told reporters in Nairobi on Friday.

“Parliament could play a more positive role in the fight against corruption. We have seen that bodies that have been set up to fight corruption in this country have ended up being derailed at critical moments.

“The issue of setting up a tribunal to investigate (the commissioners) is, in our view, legally sound but in the practical sense of it, it leads to questions as to whether it is inspired by a need to see certain processes that the commission is handling derailed,” he said.

Following his suspension, Mr Mumo Matemu becomes the third anti-corruption chief to leave office controversially. Since 2006, only one, Aaron Ringera, has been forced to resign.

If the tribunal finds Mr Matemu at fault, he will be the first to be fired over integrity issues.

The anti-corruption body has changed over the years before arriving at its current form. Here is a brief history of its troubles.

Before 1995

Kenya often relied on the police to detect and fight corruption. For instance, there was an anti-corruption squad. Formed in early 1990s, it was charged with investigating graft. But after a period of unsuccessful investigations, it was disbanded.

John Harun Mwau

The government of Daniel Moi created the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority popularly known as KACA. Moi was responding to the IMF’s suspension of aid over official corruption in his government.

A former policeman who later served as the MP for Kilome, Harun Mwau became its first director from December 1997. After a few months in office, he brought a case against 15 individuals including Treasury officials over allegations they had conspired to defraud the country of Sh230 million worth of taxes in sugar and wheat imports.

However, the State Law Office controversially terminated the case.

The case had elicited a public spat between then Finance Minister Simeon Nyachae and Mwau. Nyachae accused Mwau of abusing the legal process.

Mr Mwau was suspended and later removed as the conflict with Nyachae escalated. It later emerged that donors had put pressure on the government over the way the Authority had been constituted.

Justice (Rtd) Aaron Ringera

The Retired Judge came into office to replace Harun Mwau in March 1999. About a year in office, a member of the public sued the State arguing that that the establishment of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority undermined the authority of the Attorney-General and the police. The High Court would later rule that the statutory provisions that created the authority were unconstitutional.

That forced the government to dissolve the Authority.

Ringera II

In 2001, Kenya created the anti-corruption police unit which would be operated by the then Criminal Investigative Department, now the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).

In 2003, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act created the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC).

Ringera became its first Director assisted by Fatuma Sichale and Dr Smokin Wanjala, who is now a Supreme Court judge. They formally took office in September 2004.

But in 2009, Ringera and his team were forced by Parliament to resign. MPs at the time charged that he had failed to go for the big fish and recover money stolen in high-profile scandals. Legislators refused to endorse his second term.

Prof Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba

One of the most eloquent personalities in the country found himself on the receiving end of MPs wrath just over a year after he had replaced Justice (Rtd) Ringera. Lumumba took office in 2010 but MPs used an opportunity to have KACC change to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to also settle scores with Lumumba.

Lumumba would leave office in August 2011 amid allegations that politicians had tried to bribe him to drop investigations into their conduct. The demise of the KACC meant the EACC would be established as provided for under the 2010 Constitution.

The new Commission would be independent have constitutional mandate and have commissioners as well as a secretariat.

But it seems the problems that plagued its predecessors are still around.