The head of Kenya's leading anti-graft agency, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), is preparing to step down after legislation was passed which will create a new agency to fight corruption.
Patrick Lumumba and his four deputies have a week to leave their offices. They will be replaced by interim directors who will run the KACC until its successor, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is ready to absorb the old agency's staff in around three months' time.
The legislation signed by President Mwai Kibaki last week is an amendment to an anti-corruption Bill, passed by Parliament in line with Kenya's new constitution which came into effect last year. As well as fighting corruption, the new EACC will be tasked with implementing Article Six of the new constitution, which sets ethical standards for individuals seeking to enter public office.
The winding-down of the KACC and its replacement by the EACC has raised some concerns about the viability of Kenya's struggle against graft. This is the third time since 1997 that the country's main anti-corruption agency has been disbanded: the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority was shut down in 2000, and its replacement the Anti-Corruption Police Unit was replaced by the KACC in 2003. Such a rapid turnover, the KACC argued in a leaked letter to the government, “would set a bad precedent”.
More significantly, it could prove “operationally disastrous and a fatal recoil in the fight against corruption”, according to the KACC letter. The unwieldy transition period of three months could lead to the suspension or weakening of on-going investigations, the agency argued, although the government has insisted that the interim directors will ensure that the KACC continues to run smoothly.
In any case the work of the agency has yet to yield any major successes. Although the former Foreign and Industrialisation Ministers were forced to resign after corruption allegations, no senior political figures have been convicted of graft by Lumumba's KACC. He spoke out against Kenya's culture of corruption earlier this year, warning that the country could face unrest because corruption was stifling economic development.
As recently as last week he engaged in a public dispute with assistant Tourism Minister Cecily Mbarire, accusing her of seeking to bribe him in connection with an investigation being conducted by KACC into the Ministry of Water. She has now filed a suit against Lumumba for defamation.
Sources: Reuters, Daily Nation, The Standard, Voice of America
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