STRENGTHENING COOPERATION BETWEEN EACC AND COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN COMBATING AND

PREVENTING CORRUPION____________________

Keynote Address by Mumo Matemu, MBS, Chairperson of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) during the Visit to Machakos County Government on Thursday, 29th May

2014

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_________________________ Your Excellency, Dr. Alfred Mutua, Governor of Machakos County;Deputy Governor;County Secretary;Speaker of the County Assembly;Members of the Executive Committee and County Assembly present;Distinguished Guests;Our friends from the media;Colleagues from the Commission;Ladies and Gentlemen:

It gives me great pleasure and honour to be with you today as we collectively strategize how to strengthen good governance and enhance corruption intolerance in Machakos County.

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From the very onset, let me thank Your Excellency for expressing desire to work with us and thereby inviting the Commission to visit Machakos County. This is no doubt a clear demonstration of your government’s willingness to mainstream and promote integrity in the discharge of the responsibilities bestowed upon you by the people of Kenya generally, and the residents of Machakos in particular. The Commission appreciates such efforts and in this regard, we pledge our support to your other programs and activities aimed at combating and preventing corruption in the County.

Ladies and Gentlemen;We come to Machakos at a significant moment for the County. Just like majority of Kenyans who have had the opportunity to visit Machakos and in particular where we are at the moment,

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we concur that to-date, Machakos County has distinguished itself as one of the most innovative county governments in Kenya. This is evidenced by the various flagship projects under implementation especially in the areas of tourism, sports, trade and technological development.

In addition to the Machakos Stadium, we are aware that Machakos is celebrated for having developed the Machakos Peoples Park which is now a crucial tourist attraction facility. We are also made to understand that the County is laying strategies for construction of two modern cities. We urge you to intensify these innovations which are necessary for ensuring a high quality life for all the residents of Machakos and the people of Kenya in general.

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However, if you do not embrace good governance and corruption intolerance, these attractive developmental goals will remain elusive. Integrity in your operations will be the key determinant of the future of Machakos County.

As you are aware, Kenyans in 2010 gave themselves a new Constitution bringing a paradigm shift in the way public affairs are managed. It is incumbent upon those of us who are entrusted with the management of public affairs to ensure that the ideals and values of this Constitution are realized for the benefit of the people of Kenya. In particular, county governments have a duty to uphold and promote the objects of devolution as listed under Article 174 of the Constitution. Article 249 empowers Constitutional Commissions such as EACC to protect sovereignty of the people, secure observance

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by all state officers of democratic principles and values and promote constitutionalism. In our case, this mandate is amplified under Chapter Six which mandates the Commission to combat and prevent corruption in Kenya through law enforcement, prevention and promotion of best practices in ethics and integrity. It is against this background that the Commission expects all county governments including Machakos to perform their duties with integrity bearing in mind that all Public Officials hold their respective offices in trust for the people only exercising delegated authority.

Ladies and Gentlemen;Today’s visit is part of an ongoing program by the Commission to partner with county governments with a view to helping them to establish strong accountability systems; map out

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corruption prone areas; develop good governance instruments; formulate corruption prevention strategies; and identify challenges and emerging issues in county governance. I am aware that my Colleague, Commissioner Prof. Onsongo led a team of our officers to Machakos County early this year and implemented an advisory programme on corruption prevention. Prof. Onsongo has told me that an Action Plan committing the county government to implement various anti-corruption initiatives was agreed on. I am sure that His Excellency will in his remarks update us on the progress made in execution of these initiatives.

Implementation of anti-corruption strategies is indeed part of the criterion that the Commission will use in ranking counties in our annual Surveys on Corruption and Ethics. You may have interacted with our Research Department which is currently in

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your County conducting an Annual Survey on Corruption and Ethics to mark the end of county governments one year in office. It is imperative to note that your ranking in the survey report for this year will entirely depend on what you are currently doing to redeem your county from the demons associated with the corruption of the past.

Ladies and Gentlemen;EACC is in possession of numerous reports regarding corruption and unethical practices in many county governments. We will in the coming weeks send to the Director of Public Prosecutions completed investigation files involving over ten county governments. Some of the malpractices reported from county governments range from conflict of interest; payments for works not done; theft in collection of

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revenue; payments to ghost workers and for ghost projects; failure to follow laid down procedures and guidelines in procurement, irregular recruitments and culpable financial management practices; fraudulent acquisition of public property; nepotism; unethical conduct among others. In this regard, the Commission is partnering with county governments to implement preventive strategies because failure to prevent corruption would automatically usher in the Commission’s law enforcement mandate. I pause here to clarify that our ongoing partnerships with county governments will not in any way deter us from investigating and subjecting to prosecution individual officers in county governments who engage in corruption or unethical conduct. We are partnering with county governments as entities and not their individual office occupants at all!

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In the same breath, it is also important to emphasize that the Commission will not be drawn into politics as we discharge our mandate. What we are interested in is to secure observance of Constitutional requirements by those who have chosen or accepted to hold public office. For avoidance of doubt, EACC is not engaged in negative profiling of any Governor or other Public Officer. I have again and again stated that we do not have Governors who are thieves, but rather, we could have thieves who became Governors. It is the thieves that we are pursuing. We will however let the Governors do their work.

Chapter Six of our Constitution has raised the ethical bar for public service in Kenya. Those who accept to hold public office must therefore be prepared to operate within our Constitution

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and other integrity laws. Upholding integrity in our duties is not a choice but a duty that binds all of us.

On our part, the Commission will not shy away from discharging our Constitutional mandate in respect to any State or Public Officer who is found to be plundering or abusing the public resources entrusted to them. This we will do without any fear or favour in line with our oath of office. I therefore encourage Machakos County Government to implement the Action Plan recently signed with the Commission during the advisory programme and create an atmosphere that is hostile to corruption and impunity in Machakos.

In the coming financial year, we plan to expand our regional presence by opening four regional offices. I am glad to inform you that the Commission has identified Machakos town as the

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appropriate location for setting up a new regional office to serve the entire lower eastern region. We therefore look forward to working closely with you.Ladies and Gentlemen;The Commission continues to spread the gospel that corruption is not one of the devolved functions under the Constitution.

It is therefore necessary to emphasize on some factors that are critical in the success of devolution in Kenya. One such factor is the role of professionals in devolution. As you are aware, devolution is highly characterized by infrastructural development where various professional services such as engineering and accounting are employed. Huge amounts of public funds could be lost if professionals who have fallen short of integrity standards are allowed to mislead county governments. I therefore urge you to engage only professionals

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who uphold integrity and have proved to be of good standing in their practice.

That way, you will pre-empt any efforts to lead you to the guillotine. Machakos County has development potential in various sectors coupled with hard working people.

I urge all county leaders to see their positions as opportunities to serve rather than opportunities to “eat”. In order to register progress in the much desired good governance and corruption intolerance, the Commission encourages you to consider implementing the following measures at the earliest:a) Enact anti-corruption legislation for the county; b) Establish an effective corruption prevention committee;c) Vet all staff inherited from the defunct municipal council

and those seeking to be recruited;

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d) Conduct corruption risk assessment to identify and expose loopholes in your systems that could allow corrupt conduct and promptly seal them;

e) Comply with laws and laid down procedures and regulations on recruitment, procurement, financial management and other affairs;

Implementation of these tools will transform your County to a model unit of governance where others would come to study best practices.

This brings me to the last but very important issue; the need for all the public servants in county governments to always read from the same script and work in solidarity. This reminds me of a county I recently visited and was amazed by the high

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level of cooperation, team spirit and unity among the various arms of the county government.

Let all leaders internalize that Machakos County is greater than any one of you. We should not permit anything other than public interest to characterize our discharge of our duties.

In the end, each of us will be able to say like Emma Bombet who expressed his wish as follows:

“…When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left; and could say, I used everything you gave me…”

Thank you for your audience and May God Bless You.

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MUMO MATEMU, MBS,CHAIRPERSON

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