Kenya’s anti-corruption commission announces change of tack in war on graft

Senate Assembly Speaker Ekwee Ethuro (L) welcome Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) Chairman Philip Kinisu (C) and Vice Sophia Lupuchirit when who paid him a courtesy call at Parliament. PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO

NAIROBI: The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has proposed a five-pronged strategy in the fight against graft.

The new EACC boss Philip Kinisu has vowed to ease on the sting operations and the hauling of suspects to court.

Instead, the commission wants all accounting officers in government offices punished if they fail to stop fraud, and to also sign performance contracts so that they be fired for incompetence if they fail to tame graft.

The commission review all systems in public bodies, making state officers take “fiduciary responsibility” for the loss of public funds, entrenching commitments to fight corruption in performance contracts, and working with other state organs to ensure corruption is stopped at source. There will also be fresh vetting of all staff at the EACC in an exercise that will take a year. The change of tack was revealed at a meeting between Kinisu and Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro on the eve of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s return to Parliament to give a report on how his government has fought corruption.

“Corruption needs to be fought through a variety of angles, not just through the courts. If we took the route where people have to be prosecuted and jailed as the only way to fight corruption, we are going to fail,” said Mr Kinisu on Wednesday.

But that, he said, did not mean those who steal will not end up in court. His view is that the EACC should focus on making sure systems are in place and people in power know they will be punished for pilfering public funds.

“We want to know where the shoe pinches so that we target our resources there in a sustainable manner, to build systems,” he told the Senate Speaker.

Ethuro said while the President’s list of shame was a public show of commitment, there was little to show regarding the outcome of the cases referred to EACC.

“That is why we are asking the EACC to do a bit more. Parliament, the Presidency and the EACC on their own cannot win this war,” Ethuro said at the Wednesday meeting.

The President told Parliament that 360 cases were in court and asked the Judiciary to expedite their conclusion.

Kinisu, who was accompanied by two other commissioners met Ethuro nearly a fortnight after he held a similar meeting with National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi.