EACC nominee Kinisu vows to slay corruption dragon

EACC nominee for chair Philip Kinisu being vetted by the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee on December 2, 2015. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Kinisu said the he would rely on the existing laws to “slay the dragon”.

  • He said he would use the anti-corruption war to improve the country’s international corruption index.

President Kenyatta’s nominee for chairman of the anti-corruption commission, Philip Kinisu, on Wednesday said he would adopt a different strategy in the fight against corruption to avoid past pitfalls.

Mr Kinisu said he would rely on systems to detect and deal with corruption rather than wait for it to happen.

He said he would apply pressure on public officers to follow the required procedures and remain accountable.

“We will use the existing systems to ensure that all public officers adhere to them and those who fall out of it will be detected and investigations by the EACC and other agencies commenced,” he said.

VETTING

He was speaking during his vetting by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee of the National Assembly.

He pledged to fight corruption professionally.

Asked by committee chairman Samuel Chepkonga how he hoped to deal with the vice, which President Kenyatta declared a threat to national security, Mr Kinisu said the he would rely on the existing laws to “slay the dragon”.

“The necessary systems, procedures and legal provisions are already in place but what is lacking is the implementation. I will, within 100 days, be able to establish what is stopping the commission from executing measures already in place to fight corruption,” he said.

Mr Kinisu, who stated he had been in the governance sector for the past 34 years and retired as chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers last year, said he was keen on improving the image of the EACC to instil public confidence.

He said he would use the anti-corruption war to improve the country’s international corruption index.