(Mwongela Mbiti is an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a Human Rights Activist)
The entry of Twalib Abdallah Mbarak, the new EACC boss gives a beam of hope to Kenyans in the renewed fight against corruption in the country.
Twalib boasts of a long military service career and extensive intelligence training in Kenya, Germany, South Africa, the United States, and Britain.
This experience gives him an upper hand on matters investigation and enforcement which have in the past not been felt to exist in EACC’s DNA.
The new EACC boss finds an institution fighting for its life both figuratively and in reality with the DCI and ODPP threatening its very existence.
EACC’s dismal record, coupled with the DCI’s widely publicized success in arresting high-level suspects, have created a jurisdictional mess which bodes ill for the anti-graft effort.
Thus, Twalib’s biggest challenge will be to right the wrongs committed by his predecessor among them redeeming EACC’s credibility which will go a long way in restoring confidence in the institution.
The CEO must work hard to repair the image of the commission with a view of winning the executive’s trust and the peoples’ support.
EACC has looked clueless to what the other partners in the multi-agency anti-corruption task force were doing except for staging dramatic public arrests, prompting many to think that time is up for the agency whose 15-year existence has largely passed by as a blur, only punctuated by the shirt-rolling of those at the helm of the agency.
Nonetheless, at a time when EACC operations have seemingly been bolstered by the DCI and ODPP’s unrelenting zeal to fight corruption, Twalib could also take advantage of the political goodwill to make EACC shine.
He is the man now tasked with exploring a change in strategy by asking this question; “why is it that despite the existence of anti-corruption institutions, laws and policies, corruption remains on the ascendancy in Kenya?”
Kenyans of goodwill are hoping that this time around, unlike what we are used to, there will be consistency to ensure that those involved are punished in accordance with the law because corruption remains a major problem affecting the political, social and economic development in Kenya.
By its very nature, corruption has encouraged unethical conduct which has adversely affected and distorted the public sector choices and decision making with undesirable consequences such as poor service delivery.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s recognition of corruption as one of the greatest threat to economic transformation and the Big Four agenda has largely favoured the multi-agency task force.
Focus now shifts to EACC where Twalib is now at the helm. He is the man who will shape the commission in regard to how capacitated it is in corruption matters.
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