Wabukala's anti-graft agency now targets graft peddlers in the private sector

juma chrispinus

February 24, 2017 5:48 PM

Wabukala has renewed his irk for fighting graft in the government-private sector business partnerships.

The newly appointed graft watchdog agency chair and former Anglican Church Archbishop Eliud Wabukala is setting a new pace in fighting graft in the public-private sector business scene.

The massive looters and other economic crime perpetrators are set for a tougher time, following a directive by Wabukala to senior chiefs of private companies who bribe government officials to win juicy state tenders to desist.

The Wabukala led Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) team has sounded yet another stunning warning of dire consequences to the private sector.

Speaking during a consultative meeting between the private sector and the EACC, agency’s chairman Eliud Wabukala said public procurement, “where the government does business with the private sector, is the biggest source of corruption and bribery running into tens of billions of shillings every year.”

More evidence

Wabukala has once again pledged to build strong lawsuits against chief executive officers in then private sectors who involved in corruption in collusion with state officers under the Bribery Act 2016.

Read:THIS IS WHY KENYA IS A BANDIT ECONOMY

The new law, already proposed by the private sector, has addressed the gaps in the judicial systems that made it difficult to sue the giver and taker of bribes.

The major hurdle, the anti-graft agency has said, has been investigating international tendering process.

“We are laying modalities to assist the private sector in curbing corruption. Those who go beyond will be arrested and put behind bars to protect Kenya [from corruption],” Wabukala told the meeting attends.

President Uhuru Kenyatta ascended to law the bill last year after a tussling debate in parliament owing to the Sh5 million fine or a 10-year-jail term associated with it. The house was divided on the law.

The 2016 Act henceforth criminalises corruption, and it is the first law to target private firms who for long have been left outside the ring of graft dossiers in the recent past.

juma chrispinus