The Fight Against Corruption: The EACC Fallacy

In the past few months, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has been on the public spotlight due to the manner in which it has been handling corruption issues.

The commission which is now losing the trust of Kenyans seems to be kneeling and wiping the feet of the corrupt other than fighting them.

Despite the fact that the commission has no powers to prosecute but only to recommend, EACC has terribly failed Kenyans.

The National Youth Service is a matter that is well known among all Kenyans. It is said that more one billion shillings were looted from the NYS. The matter went before the EACC for investigations as well as recommending the prosecution of the culprits.

The first shock came when word went around that Anne Waiguru, the former Cabinet Secretary for Devolution had been listed as a witness in the case other than a suspect. It took the outcry of Kenyans for the matter to be changed.

The second shock came when the commission cleared the former CS under some unclear circumstances. When Kenyans protested through the social media, the same commission re-summoned the former CS after an affidavit implicating her had been released.

The matter is slowly becoming water under the bridge. It appears Waiguru knew which button to press for since she named some senior politicians from the ruling party, the files on the case started gathering dust.

In a more turn of events, it is now emerging that the man at the helm of EACC, Philip Kinisu had a company that received close to 200 million shillings from the devolution ministry.

Kenyans are now calling on Philip Kinisu to step down but as usual, the man insists that he is clean. The question is, if indeed Kinisu’s company benefitted from NYS, could this be the reason why nothing has been going on so far?

Then came the Eurobond saga. The opposition, Coalition for Reforms and Democracy CORD, raised an alarm of a said looting of more than 100 billion shillings. The National Treasury moved to clear the air through the issuing of a series of contradictory statements. The EACC went mute over the issue till today. No one knows whether the Eurobond billions were looted or not.

A list of 60 government officials who were said to be corrupt were presented in Parliament by President Uhuru Kenyatta. The names were then handed over to EACC for investigations. Almost all the names were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Read: Kenya Loses 50 percent of its Budget to Corruption – PKF East Africa

Corruption is the main cancer of the economy of Kenya. At one point, President Uhuru Kenyatta declared it a threat to national security. Since then, the loot continues to happen; the Youth Fund and many more.

When Kenyans voted in the new constitution, devolution was born. Kenyans celebrated for they knew that a new dawn had come. They knew that developments had been brought closer to them. Little did they know that the devolution that had been created was the devolution of corruption. It was like thieves had been moved from the city and spread equally across the country in 47 counties. Governors are looting, Members of County Assemblies are stealing with vigor and nobody seems to be caring.

EACC was the only body that Kenyans had hope in and now the only threat of hope seems to be in tatters. The commission has now become like a house where sinners go in and come out clean.

The questions that now abound are:

1. Should the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission be left to continue sanctifying the looters of this nation?

2. Is Philip Kinisu credible to continue being one of the top brass at the EACC?

3. Has corruption become such a normal thing until we no longer care whenever we hear about it?

Kenyans continue to suffer as a result of the escalating cost of living. They struggle and paying high taxes through the nose. Recently, the government raised the price of fuel by up to 13 percent. As Kenyans struggle to pay the taxes, their leaders are busy struggling to steal from them.