President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday asked public officers to call out their colleagues whose integrity has dipped.
He said corruption cannot be fought by people of low integrity.
"We need to be honest with ourselves. You have to look your colleague in the eye and tell them they are corrupt if they are corrupt," the President said.
He spoke on the second day of the 4th International Association of Prosecutors and East Africa Association of Prosecutors Conference at Sarova Whitesands Hotel in Mombasa.
He warned public officers against hiding behind independent offices in order to avoid scrutiny.
"Talk to each other. Do not say I am interfering with your office," he told DPP Noordin Haji.
Haji praised Uhuru's administration, saying it has mounted the largest and most sustained war on corruption in Kenya's history.
He said the President has shown his commitment to fighting corruption by channeling resources toward key institutions like the National Police Service and his Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
"An effective police service is a prerequisite for an effective criminal justice system," Haji said.
Interior CS Fred Matiang'i said resources that have been channeled to the ODPP in the last four years has increased the effectiveness of the fight against corruption.
He said the strengthening of governance shows there is political goodwill to fight corruption from the head of state.
President Uhuru said the war against corruption will also help in combating transnational organised crime, which he said calls for cooperation among countries.
"Transnational crime can't be tackled without cooperation," Uhuru said.
He further said Kenya has adopted bilateral and multilateral approaches to fighting crime across borders.
The continent, he said, loses about $88.8 billion (approximately Sh10.3 trillion) to transnational and organised crime a year.
"The resources Africa loses would have otherwise greatly helped the continent's development agenda," he said.
The President said most of the laws in African countries are playing catch up to the organised criminal elements, who keep on devising new ways of conducting crime, which hurts mostly the developing economies.
Transnational crime also evolves faster than laws are made and this makes it difficult to individually fight it, he said.
He said continuous training of law enforcement officers and other key agents involved in the criminal justice system is needed to match the ever-evolving nature of the transnational crime.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
