Elachi calls for random wealth audits to tame public servants’ graft

Dagoretti North MP Beatrice Elachi has called for more stringent and unpredictable checks on public servants’ wealth declarations, saying the current system is easily circumvented and ineffective in fighting corruption.

Speaking during an interview on Citizen TV’s Daybreak program on Tuesday, Elachi urged the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to be “innovative” in enforcing the law.

“If you want to be consistent with the wealth declaration, EACC must be innovative; do a random audit on us once in a while,” she said.

She acknowledged that such spot checks could attract accusations of political targeting, but argued that public officials with nothing to hide should have no cause for concern.

“Targeting will always be there… if you know in your conscience that everything is right, you don’t need to be agitated at being scrutinised,” Elachi said.

While wealth declaration is a mandatory requirement for all state and public officers as they assume office, critics say it has done little to stem illicit enrichment due to loopholes, lack of follow-up, and weak enforcement.

Elachi’s remarks come amid renewed debate on how to strengthen anti-corruption measures and improve public accountability in the wake of several high-profile graft investigations.

EACC on Tuesday said it has nine governors on its radar as part of a larger probe into counties plagued by corruption.

“We are pursuing quite a number of governors at the moment; nine are under scrutiny at different levels of the cases. It's not just governors, it goes down to other county staff," the commission’s chairperson, David Oginde, told Citizen TV in the Daybreak interview.

According to Dr Oginde, some of the graft-linked counties belong to marginalized communities, whose leaders steal county funds to invest them in Nairobi.

“I have been surprised that some of the worst-hit counties are those that are considered marginalized. They have been given privileges to try and bring the county up, but the leaders in those counties are syphoning that money and bringing it back to Nairobi to buy apartments and start businesses," he said.

Oginde pointed out that top county leaders have also been using junior officers as conduits of transferring the monies to their accounts.