Wealth declaration war has more than one front

One of Parliament’s most effective acts of legislative sabotage has the attention of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission’s head, raising hope it may some day be undone. While we welcome Justice (Rtd) Aaron Ringera’s support for change in wealth declaration, we are acutely aware this is only possible if Parliament supports it.

Kacc’s Chief Executive and Director has proposed that the Public Officers Ethics Act be reviewed so that only Cabinet ministers, permanent secretaries, MPs and chief executives of public institutions — not all civil servants as is the case currently — are required to declare their wealth.

When The Standard last made the same argument less than four weeks ago, we said the coverage should extend to local authority heads, security councils, banking and capital market institutions, and commissions. This is the only way this annual exercise will have investigative and preventive functions. We are sceptical this Parliament, or any other, will undo the mischief done by the Ninth, which sees an avalanche of hundreds of thousands of filings.

Partners in crime

We support changing the law to allow Kacc and the police access to the filings, but note adm-inistrative action can be as effective as criminal or legal action in many cases. A solution we prefer, which is not dependent on MPs, is scrutiny of all politically exposed persons heading vital institutions. This will give the Act the teeth MPs denied it even if they refuse to support changes needed to shoot down individuals who aid corruption.