Kenyans should pray Wabukala buries EACC

Eliud Wabukala speaks before the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee during assessment for the EACC chair post, on January 5, 2017. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The string of shenanigans at the EACC means that the agency is now made up of a chairman believed to be a figurehead.

There was that awkward moment for the retired Anglican Archbishop Eliud Wabukala before the National Assembly’s Legal Affairs Committee last Thursday, when he had to respond to a petitioner’s complaint about him having baptised and buried thieves during his long canonical service.

Archbishop Wabukala politely defended his record, citing the clear rules governing the execution of various church rituals.

But deep down, the Man of God must have wondered whether he was being interviewed for the right job.

Come on folks, this is just the chairman of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), a position that has been held by all manner of characters over the years!

The most recent holder of the office happens to be a former private sector executive who has since been outed as being one of the biggest tenderpreneurs in town, while the first one was a man called the Boss.

In between, a confessed member of “Kiama”, the powerful Kibaki-era kitchen Cabinet, and a former customs chief (read tax collector) have also been entrusted with the job of hunting down the corrupt.

By biblical integrity thresholds, it surely has to be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for such fellows to enter the Kingdom of God.

Besides, there can’t be a special skills-set for the job any more after the Presidency and Parliament suggested that the chairman of the EACC is nothing but a figurehead.

Following the controversial exits of commissioners Mumo Matemu (chairman), Irene Keino and Jane Onsongo in 2015, the positions remained vacant for a while, with the secretariat calling the shots.

DEAD AGENCY

In an apparent attempt to prove that the anti-graft agency could do without an overbearing chairman and idle commissioners, the Halakhe Waqo-led secretariat pulled its most dramatic power show stunt yet – handing its so-called List of Shame to President Uhuru Kenyatta to present in Parliament.

Recently, the secretariat has been seen to bare its teeth in its battle with another chairman, Peter Kinisu, which ended with the latter being hounded out of office.

The Waqo team hasn’t emerged unscathed from any of its stunts or battles though.

Its decision to hand over that report to the President earned it the epithet of a gatekeeper for the Executive from critics and put the commission’s competence and independence under public scrutiny.

Even worse, the President doesn’t seem to have forgiven the Waqo secretariat for the embarrassment of having to fire five of his Cabinet ministers named in a half-baked report.

The string of shenanigans at the EACC means that the agency is now made up of a chairman believed to be a figurehead, a couple of commissioners believed to be idle and a secretariat believed to be not only beholden to the Executive but also shady.

As a corruption fighting force, the EACC is effectively dead.

Kenyans should pray that Archbishop Wabukala actually buries it.

Writer is chief sub-editor, Business Daily. [email protected]. @otienootieno