Assessing the Strategies of the Defunct Kenya’s Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC): Lessons for the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC)

Abstract

Corruption has been identified as the biggest obstacle to progress and leading impediment to Kenya’s socio-economic development. The country has been bearing the consequences of corruption, including increase in poverty levels, poor governance, and inadequate provision of basic services. Efforts have been made by past and present governments to curb corruption. One of such was the establishment of the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) in 2003 which was later replaced by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) in 2011. This paper examines the anti-corruption strategies of the defunct KACC amidst numerous impediments including unresolved celebrated corruption cases, legal and judicial constraints, absence of prosecutorial power and negative public perception among others, notwithstanding its modest accomplishments. The paper posits that the EACC needs to break away from the past anti-corruption strategies of the KACC which reached marginal ends. Hence, the EACC does not only have the lifetime opportunity of reviewing the anti-corruption strategies of its predecessor to see what went right, but also needs to learn from the pitfalls of the KACC.