• According to Kinoti, while state agencies are doing their best to address the menace, the fight is still far from over.
• EACC CEO says in the last five years, the agency has recovered over Sh5 billion with the agency and prevented the theft of over Sh100 billion.
The Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti has regretted that the war on graft is being hampered by some government officials plundering public resources.
According to Kinoti, while state agencies are doing their best to address the menace, the fight is still far from over.
He said, corruption has remained the single pandemic the country has experienced for many years.
"Let us reflect and have a right conscience to serve Kenyans with our souls," he said.
He spoke on Wednesday morning at the KICC, Nairobi, during the launch of the National Ethics and Anti-Corruption Policy.
Kinoti stressed that fighting the corruption pandemic requires concerted efforts from all Kenyans.
"Corruption has been a pandemic that has given Kenyans a bitter experience for decades," he said.
He said the multi-agency team established by the President and led by Attorney General Kihara Kariuki has been instrumental in the fight against corruption.
"We have done our best but the appraisal of how sincere and how dedicated we are as far as this war is concerned is out there,' he said.
He warned that the government has sufered the most with reckless government officials turning into wolves to devour what they have been entrusted to protect.
"They do so because they believe public resources are there to be plundered," he said, "that should not be the case."
EACC chief executive officer Twalib Mbarak lauded the fight against corruption saying in the recent past it has gained considerable momentum.
He cited the increased rates of convictions, worth of assets recovered as some of the indicators that the country is winning the war.
He said in the last five years, EACC has recovered over Sh5 billion with the agency and prevented the theft of over Sh100 billion.
"Disruption is a silent way of fighting corruption. Corruption is a threat to national security," Mbarak said.
The policy seeks to build synergy across all government institutions and bring on board a centralised approach in the fight against corruption.
According to Mbarak, the new policy seeks to enforce leadership, ethics and integrity law across the public service.
"We need to follow the rule of law, we have the laws but the implementation has become a problem," he stressed.
He said that the law should be strengthened to ensure that public officers implicated in graft be suspended from office.
" The lifestyle of public officers must be commensurate with their earnings," he said.
The CEO noted that an assessment done by the commission on governors show that they can be a formidable force in the presidential race given the wealth they have accumulated.