KACC to place spies in State agencies

By Cyrus Ombati

The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission will recruit and plant spies in all 450 Government agencies to help fight graft.

KACC Acting Director Perminus Mutonyi said the one-year exercise would be rolled out under the Integrity Testing Programme being implemented in the Civil Service.

"This way we will monitor graft activities and act within time. We hope to reduce corruption by a big margin as we anticipate a rise of the same ahead of the 2012 General Election," said Mr Mutonyi.

He said the spies would gather intelligence on corruption and report to a secretariat based at the KACC headquarters, for action. "After that, suspected individuals irrespective of their position, will be subjected to an integrity testing programme, which may include monitoring their activities and questioning them," he said.

He said the spies would be paid well to avoid being compromised.

He revealed that a test of the programme led to an increase in revenue at the Customs department in Mombasa from Sh9 billon to Sh11 billion, last month.

"Those proved to be engaged in corrupt activities will be arrested and prosecuted. We will also seek to recover any money obtained through corruption," he said at the weekend.