NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 11 – The Kenya Anti Corruption Commission (KACC) has defended itself against allegations that it was failing in the anti graft war by forwarding cases with insufficient evidence to the Attorney General (AG).
Director Aaron Ringera instead blamed the AG’s office on Wednesday for doing less to support their efforts in the war against corruption.
“There is absolutely no file we have ever forwarded to the Attorney General of which we were not convinced that we had sufficient evidence,” Justice Ringera said adding that all cases were keenly observed by a panel of lawyers to authenticate the evidence before being forwarded.
The KACC Director insisted that his investigators had been gathering sufficient evidence for the prosecution of graft related cases but the AG’s office had failed to take action.
“In law, differences of opinion are the norm, so I wouldn’t think that the fact that the files are referred back to us is a reflection of the incompetence of our investigators,” he said.
The Commission has continually blamed the AG’s office and the Judiciary for frustrating its work by failing to prosecute cases that the commission say they have sufficiently investigated.
The justice system on the other hand has argued that KACC fails to provide convincing evidence to warrant prosecution. Created in 2004 to fight graft, the KACC has lost public faith for failing to eliminate the vice that continues to cripple the government.
The Director however maintained that his commission had done its work perfectly. He has also maintained that the commission has done a good job in fighting corruption in senior levels of the government.
“We have investigated a vice president, cabinet ministers, senior military officials and 58 heads of parastatals. If that is not big fish then perhaps you are taking about sharks. I consider that very big fish,” he stated.
The Director spoke as he handed over a total of 146 complaints that it had received against public servants to the office of the Ombudsman, for evaluation.
About The Author
