- Anti-graft agency is vilified unfairly but it has been working as best as it can given the circumstances
- Commission continues to recruit more staff, targeting 1,000 by end of the year
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has defended itself against accusations of being complicit in the cover-up of some cases that involve high profile names.
Vice chair Sophia Lepuchirit on Monday said the commission is seriously understaffed and thus cannot effectively investigate the many cases it receives.
Three years ago when she took office, the commission had 236 staff.
Over 30 of them resigned because they feared vetting, the vice chair said.
She said some state institutions have poached some of the best staff from the commission because they are highly trained.
“We don’t have the capacity to investigate everything,” Lepuchirit said.
She spoke during an EACC workshop for the KPA corporate corruption prevention committee in Kilifi.
Lepuchirit said many times the anti-graft agency is vilified unfairly but it has been working as best as it can given the circumstances.
The commission continues to recruit more staff, with the staff population almost hitting the 800 mark now, she said.
The commission targets to get to 1,000 by the end of the year.
Lepuchirit said most of the cases they receive are malicious and an attempt at settling scores between business and political rivals.
“We see malice in some things they bring to us,” she said.
It is worse during elections when political rivals want to use the agency to eliminate competition.
“If we were to do all these things we would destroy this country,” she noted.
“We also want people to understand. We don’t have the capacity to investigate every single allegation.”
The commission is however employing another strategy to combat corruption.
They are now putting more focus on prevention.
The EACC has set up an academy, which will go around the country to sensitize people on the effect of corruption and how to detect and prevent graft.
“The chairman keeps on saying ‘how many people are we going to take to jail? Are we going to jail half the country?’ Surely, prevention is better than cure,” Lepuchirit said.
The commission is facing accusations of covering up the grabbing of land in Sabaki, Kilifi county, where powerful individuals in the Moi regime were allocated land belonging to the Agricultural Development Corporation.
The commission has been investigating the matter for the last 10 years.
The National Assembly Land committee is probing how 912 acres were hived off and sold to individuals.
There are questions raised why the government does not want to implement the Ndung’u report, which tackles most of the historical injustices that have been meted on residents across different parts of the country, especially on land at the Coast.
NGOs and human rights lobby groups including Muslims for Human Rights (Muhuri) have called on the government to implement the Ndung’u report.
“Everything concerning land is in the Ndung’u report. They should implement it. But they fear that because it will touch the wrong buttons,” said an officer from Muhuri.
Lepuchirit lauded the Kenya Ports Authority, which formed the Apex Corporate Corruption Prevention Committee in 2005.
KPA managing director Daniel Manduku said the authority is fully committed to building capacity on corruption prevention and strengthening of its corporate ethical culture.