The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) now say they are keen to establish which projects benefit from the rising public debt.
With the country’s debt surpassing the Sh11.1 trillion mark, the Commission and Parliament welcomed full investigations on how the funds were utilised.
Since the Kenya Kwanza Government came into power, the public debt has risen by over Sh2 trillion.
This emerged during a meeting between EACC senior officers and members of the parliamentary committee in Sawela Lodge in Naivasha.
According to EACC chairman Bishop David Oginde, the commission investigated past and present projects in the country on how the funds were utilised.
Addressing the press on the sidelines of the meetings, Oginde said that the commission would not work in isolation in fighting graft in the country.
“We are aware of the rising debts and the commission will continue with its investigations on current and past projects where the country could have lost taxpayers cash,” he said.
He denied allegations that the Naivasha retreat was a follow-up to the State House meeting between the President and Judiciary over allegations of graft.
On his part, the JLAC chairman George Murugara said that the committee fully supported investigations as to how the cash borrowed by the State was used.
He said that the committee could continue to support EACC through the right legislative and budgetary allocation in dealing with graft.
“We are happy that the rising public debt which stands at over Sh11Tr is on EACC radar as the public needs to know how their cash was used,” he said.
The Tharaka MP at the time rejected calls to give EACC prosecutorial powers noting that the commission could not investigate and prosecute its cases.
This was echoed by EACC CEO Twalik Mbarak who noted calls of prosecutorial powers had its pros and cons adding that this would be misused on political grounds.
He was quick to add that they were working closely with ODPP noting that low budgetary allocation, low staff in the judiciary and bad leadership were affecting their work.
“We have counties like Kisumu which are doing very well in the use of public funds but many others are flouting the law and misusing public funds,” he said.
