EACC takes up fresh approach in graft war

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Chairman Philip Kinisu receives a gift from Public Service Commission Chairperson Margaret Kobia at Laico Hotel in Nairobi on April 6, 2016, during the Kenya Institute of Management Fellows' Luncheon. It emerged that EACC is deeply infiltrated by cartels that have made it difficult to prosecute prominent people mentioned in graft scandals. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Efforts to get rid of the individuals working for corruption cartels through fresh vetting, have been blocked after a section of employees moved to court and obtained an injunction.
  • In the document, Mr Kinisu and his team want the agency’s budget increased from the current Sh2.5 billion to Sh6 billion to pave way for fresh restructuring.
  • It appears to have come up with a fresh strategy to tackle corruption through early detection, gathering of information and daily presence in government ministries, departments and agencies.

A new team of officers set up by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has identified better strategies of fighting the vice, which the chairman observed is being perpetuated and sustained by cartels.

It appears to have come up with a fresh methods to tackle corruption through early detection, gathering of information and daily presence in government ministries, departments and agencies.

“A new strategy is to profile institutions by the prevalence of corruption and allocate resources to fight corruption,” a strategy document reads.

They have identified State offices in which prevalence of corruption is high.

“We intend to deploy 600 investigators to high risk institutions where corruption is happening on daily basis for instance the Ministry of Lands,” the document reads in part.

The National Police Service, Transport ministry, Treasury, Judiciary and other ministries and departments have also been identified.

Next week, the team will appear before the National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs committee to present their plan.

It emerged that the anti-graft commission is deeply infiltrated by cartels that have made it difficult to prosecute prominent people mentioned in graft scandals.

Efforts to get rid of the individuals working for corruption cartels through fresh vetting have been blocked after a section of employees moved to court and obtained an injunction, sources at the commission say.

A strategy document seen by the Nation and which will guide the new team of commissioners at the agency chaired by Mr Philip Kinisu, exposes the rot and the systemic failures at the EACC and proposes new ways of fighting the blight.

In the document, Mr Kinisu and his team want the agency’s budget increased from the current Sh2.5 billion to Sh6 billion to pave way for fresh restructuring.

TACKLING CORRUPTION

The failure to adequately fund the commission, they argue, has opened it up to infiltration by corruption cartels, making it difficult to fight the vice.

“The commission is infiltrated with people sponsored to frustrate investigations. It is deeply challenged by enabling instruments and failed convictions. What ails the commission are vested interests and it has taken three months to come to this conclusion,” it states.

It is understood that the vested interests are, for instance, manifested in poor investigations and weak charge sheets.

“That is why charges preferred against suspects in most cases fail to stand the scrutiny of top lawyers hired by suspects. When the commission decided to vet everyone afresh, some of them dashed to court and blocked it,” said the source.

The commission, the document states, requires the political will of the government to tackle corruption and argues that the support of President Uhuru Kenyatta alone is not enough.

In the document, they appear to justify the apparent lull in activities at Integrity House in the argument that previous regimes at the agency tended to define corruption in a narrow manner by focusing on convictions.

“This pushed the agency to overstretch itself, given the shortage of investigators which normally end up in shoddy investigations. To deal with this, we have to find a new way of defining success against corruption by laying emphasis on changing the attitude of our people,” the document reads in part.

The new team, apart from Mr Kinisu, is composed of Commissioners Rose Macharia, Dabar Abdi, Paul Gachoka and Sophia Lepuchirit.