Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission 4-Year Performance Dismal

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the body that is tasked with fighting corruption as well as recovering all assets that have been amassed unlawfully by individuals is back on the limelight.

The commission has been often put to task by various quarters in the manner in which it has been handling some corruption cases in the country with some even terming it as a clearing agency where the corrupt go and be cleared as clean.

It has now emerged that the commission has performed dismally in terms of asset recovery by only managing to recover only one out of every 25 shillings worth of public funds that had been gotten through fraud by some public servants.

According to records, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission only recovered assets worth 140 million shillings out of the assets worth 3.86 billion shillings that they were supposed to recover making a total recovery of 3.6 percent, the worst in four years.

In the past, the agency has often blamed on inadequate funding as a reason why it could not recover assets. The budget to the commission was then increased to boost its operation and the report is just the opposite of what was expected.

Last year, Ethics and Anti-Corruption took back assets worth 25.2 million shillings from the former boss for KEMRI Davy Koech. The commission also got assets worth 97 million shillings from Christopher Ochieng and lastly assets worth 11 million shillings from Johnson Gathaka.

In the year 2014, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission recovered assets worth 2.06 billion shillings compared last year’s 140.2 million shillings while in the year 2013, the commission recovered assets worth 567.4 million shillings and in the year 2012, the anti-corruption body managed to recover assets worth 526.6 million shillings.

This comes even as it emerged that Kenya loses over 500 billion shillings every year through corruption and the only body that is tasked to make sure that this menace is handled is the EACC. The question therefore, is, is the commission a noisy dog that barks and does not bite?

Article by Juma Fred.