Ethics and Anti-corruption Commission (EACC) is advocating for a significant amendment of Kenya’s anti-graft legislation.
It proposes to directly utilise financial resources and assets recovered from corrupt practices to meet its expenditure budget.
"We are very limited in our budget and we are not able to do the work we are supposed to do to the extent Kenyans expect from us," EACC said in a statement.
“If the law would be changed so we can benefit from some of the resources that we actually recover, it would make it much better to get enough resources to do our work."
The anti-graft agency argues that the number of reports received is beyond what they can practically investigate and act within a year due to budgetary limitations.
The amendment comes at a critical time when EACC has intensified its crackdown on corruption with numerous high-profile cases highlighting the need for mechanisms to manage and reutilise recovered assets.
“If we give our budget say Sh4 or Sh5 billion we are allocated Sh3 billion from the National Assembly that means that there is a deficit that can be met by the monies that we might recover out of the cases that we are pursuing," EACC said in a statement.
"We are not just going to recover the money and keep it in our coffers, there will be a structured way of doing that and that’s why we are saying it has to be approved through Parliament and legal frameworks put in place.”
