Prof. PLO Lumumba. War to be waged on forgotten wealth declarations. File
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission is conducting an audit of the wealth declaration forms filed by judicial officers in readiness for the vetting exercise expected to begin before the end of the year.
PLO Lumumba, the director of the corruption watchdog, said the High Court Registrar had handed over the forms to the agency for use in the integrity probe whose result will be a critical part of the vetting of judges and magistrates.
KACC is one of the agencies, including Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the Criminal Investigation Department, and the National Intelligence Service that have been assigned the task of gathering information that will be used to examine the qualification, integrity and probity of individuals who will serve in the reformed judiciary.
“We are checking the forms to ascertain the veracity of the declarations made, and how it compares with what these officers really own,” he said adding that the agency is working closely with the taxman to connect the dots.
Verification of declared wealth against taxes an individual has been paying, if done, opens yet a new front in the war on corruption using information that has been lying in various drawers and safes since the exercise began six years ago.
Kenyan public officers declare their wealth annually but the information has been closely guarded by the accounting officers turning it into an annual ritual.
Prof Lumumba said the fight against corruption had taken a new turn with the coming into force of the new Constitution citing the elaborate provisions on the integrity of public officers and the rigorous vetting processes for those seeking public office.
Prof Lumumba, who was speaking at the second annual Africa anti-corruption conference organised by the Hans Seidel Foundation in Nairobi, promised Kenyan a more vigorous anti-corruption war when the proposed Ethics and Anti-Corruption Bill is passed into law.
The Bill, which he described as a game-changer, has among other things, widened the list of crimes that constitute corruption from the current four to 29. The list of crimes includes influence peddling, bribery of foreign nationals, bid rigging and cheating of public revenue. It also grants the corruption watchdog the power to prosecute suspected offenders and to conduct lifestyle audits on public officers.
Lifestyle audits involve interrogation of how closely the expenditure and incomes of public officers relate – and is an instrument that many countries around the world, including the US, have used in the fight against corruption.
The conference, which brought together participants from East and Southern Africa aims at supporting governments’ fight against corruption by equipping the citizens and civil society groups with the right skills to check on graft at the grassroots level.
Lost resources
Africa is estimated to lose large amounts of resources every year to corruption even as its governments remain heavily dependent on donor support to meet their obligations to the citizens.
Civil society representatives at the forum expressed concern that the passing of new laws may not prevent the looming theft of billions of shillings of public resources when the country governments come into force.
“Politicians know that systems of accountability are weak at the grassroots hence the recent avalanche of the declaration of interest in governorships,” said Reverend Gathaka of the Ecumenical Centre for Peace and Justice.
The two-day conference covers a wide range of topics including corruption in public procurement and the private sector’s role in the fight against graft.
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