EACC direly needs governance refocus

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman Eliud Wabukala. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • When President Mwai Kibaki took over in 2003 and created the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs with a permanent secretary for ethics, the war against corruption got a timely boost and Kenyans sighed with relief.
  • Reading EACC’s annual reports, one gets the picture of an organisation mired in dilapidating inefficiency churning out depressingly winding, bulky reports just to tick the boxes while hiding its weak underbelly, lack of focus.

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) appears to have been founded on quicksand and a change in trajectory is required urgently.

From the brave John Harun Mwau in the late 1990s to Shakespeare-quoting Justice (Rtd) Aaron Ringera, he of slaying the dragon fame, to the legalese-speaking Prof PLO Lumumba, who promised us sting operations and earthquaking high-velocity files, to lawyer Matemo Mumo, who worked hard to get the job only to be declared dead on arrival, to Philip Kinisu, a veritable tax specialist self-destructed by family business convolution, we have been treated to endless promises with negligible results, if any.

The current chairman, Archbishop (Rtd) Dr Eliud Wabukala, might survive not on account of performance but because he is not a businessman and, therefore, hard to pick in terms of conflict of interest.

When President Mwai Kibaki took over in 2003 and created the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs with a permanent secretary for ethics, the war against corruption got a timely boost and Kenyans sighed with relief. Citizen arrests were common, especially of bribe-taking traffic police.

WENT MUTE

Soon afterwards, however, Anglo-Leasing happened, entangling some of his lieutenants, and he went mute. John Githongo resigned as Ethics PS and went into exile, effectively burying hope of success in the anti-corruption crusade.

Reading EACC’s annual reports, one gets the picture of an organisation mired in dilapidating inefficiency churning out depressingly winding, bulky reports just to tick the boxes while hiding its weak underbelly, lack of focus.

George Orwell said insincerity is the great enemy of clear language. When there is a gap between real and declared aims, one  instinctively turns to long words and exhausted idioms.

Kenya is faced with huge corruption appetite largely perpetrated by the elite. What is so hard in focusing on specific areas regularly instead of being all over the map? The investigations must be thorough and include lifestyle audits, then get results, document them and move to other wet areas. The results will then have a far much greater impact.

STEP ASIDE

President Uhuru Kenyatta almost gave us new hope when he asked those in his ‘list of shame’, delivered to Parliament during the State of the Nation address on March 26, 2015, to “step aside”. We wrongly assumed that stepping aside was going to be the basic standard for those mentioned or whose names are linked to a scam, to be reinstated only upon clearance. That would have been a game changer.

There is complete lack of political will to fight the graft menace. There is no Cabinet secretary responsible for matters integrity, ethics, leadership and governance and the State Law Office (Attorney-General) cannot faithfully play that role.

BLAME GAMES

It is inconceivable that two offices staffed with lawyers and investigators insist on blame games that are unhelpful to the taxpayer. Is there collusion for EACC to do poor investigations whose useless ‘evidence’ the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution runs to court with and then from the blue the duo converges to blame the Judiciary when the cases ultimately collapse?

In the EACC’s 2016/17 report, the CEO/commission secretary has the audacity to blame Kenyans as being tolerant to corruption.

What has the EACC done to protect whistleblowers? What has it achieved as the body charged with the responsibility of enforcing the Leadership and Integrity Act 2012? What sensitisation has it done to encourage public officers to report improper orders as provided for in law? Is there a list of Kenyans blacklisted for their confirmed corrupt actions or lack of integrity for breaches of the law, who are barred from holding public office?

PROSECUTE

What has the Multi-Agency Team (MAT) framework achieved? How about EACC having powers to prosecute graft cases to stop blame games and bureaucracy with ODPP?

Mark Gowder, founder of Tomorrow’s Company, highlighted the essence of governance and leadership in organisations thus: Governance and leadership are the yin and yang of successful organisations.

If you have leadership without governance you risk tyranny, fraud and personal fiefdoms. If you have governance without leadership you risk atrophy, bureaucracy and indifference. It appears EACC lacks both.

Strategy is simply a plan to achieve results. What is EACC doing to achieve results that are real and sensible in the eyes of taxpayers?

Mr Wasike is a procurement specialist and governance expert. [email protected]