Senator Onyonka: EACC officials should not be earning salaries

Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka says Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) officials should not be paid their salaries because of what he terms as a failure to eradicate graft in the country.

Onyonka on Wednesday said the anti-graft state agency has recovered hardly any of the stolen public resources in recent years.

“Kenyans must decide whether EACC is the outfit they must use to deal with corruption… Right now, they are doing nothing. Former president Uhuru Kenyatta said Ksh.2 billion is stolen daily,” the senator told Citizen TV’s Daybreak program on Wednesday.

“That is Ksh. 720 billion a year. Yet it has taken them nine years to collect the Ksh.20 billion. They should not be earning a salary. It is not logical.”

He was responding to Faith Ng’ethe, EACC’s assistant director for asset recovery, who said that from 2018, the agency has recovered over Ksh.26 billion in stolen assets.

“This was in various forms; stolen funds, unexplained wealth and stolen public land. Asset recovery is one of the ways in addition to prosecution for criminal charges so that people are penalised,” Ng’ethe had said.

But Onyonka accused EACC of failing to tackle graft despite having the technology they need to nab corrupt public officials.

He blamed the integrity watchdog for favouritism, saying it has been going after “simplistic things” to show Kenyans that it is tackling graft, like arresting a few traffic police officers caught taking bribes yet politicians are looting billions.

“Until we remove politics and personal favours for our friends, EACC means nothing. It does simplistic things like arresting police officers taking bribes, yet Kenyans are siphoning billions of dollars and taking them to banks in Dubai,” Senator Onyonka said.

“EACC has all our data; if they wanted to get anybody’s assets today, they would because of the technology they have.”

A recent EACC survey found that 60% of the respondents were dissatisfied with integrity, transparency and accountability in public service delivery in Kenya.

The report ranked corruption Kenyans’ fourth most pressing problem in the country after high cost of living, unemployment and poverty.