Economy

Agency faults lenient court fines in fight against corruption

crbc

China Road and Bridge Corporation workers building the standard gauge railway. A CRBC manager was fined Sh80,000 for overloading a truck. PHOTO | FILE

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is dissatisfied with an Sh80,000 court fine imposed on an executive of a Chinese firm constructing the standard gauge railway for bribery.

Liu Yabin, a China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC) senior manager, was arrested in September last year after he attempted to offer a Sh30,000 bribe to a National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) official to allow an overloaded truck to pass through a weighbridge.

The case is among several cited by the EACC on lenient sentences by courts, terming this as a major challenge in the fight against graft.

“The suspect was arrested and charged in court for bribery and was convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of Sh80,000,” EACC says in a brief.

The CRBC manager was arraigned in Mombasa and pleaded guilty to the charge and sentenced to six months in jail or an Sh80,000 fine.

Overloading is a crime in Kenya that attracts penalties including fines of up to Sh400,000 for excess vehicle loads of 10 tonnes and above.

The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) says that overloading shortens the lifespan of a road by up to two-thirds.

READ: China Road duo arrested over bribery

The EACC has been under pressure to deliver a blow to the graft menace and counts on heavy punishment for those found guilty as a deterrent.
Transparency International ranks Kenya at position 139 out of 168 countries in a corruption perception index.

The EACC was formed as a specialist agency to check corruption in the country with Kenya said to be losing billions of shillings every year to graft.

The brief by the anti-corruption agency cited other cases of lenient sentences, which, it says is a challenge to execution of its mandate.

In one instance, it says that a driver in Kitale offered a bribe of Sh35,000 but was fined Sh50,000 by a Kitale court.

In another instance, a police officer in Nairobi charged with soliciting and receiving a bribe was fined Sh30,000 or serve a three-month sentence.

CRBC has been building the 472km SGR from Nairobi to Mombasa since 2014 with the works expected to end by June next year, months ahead of the original schedule of 2018.