The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has recorded the best performance ever in the war against corruption with the recovery of KSh3.4 billion in proceeds of illicitly acquired assets while protecting the country from losing KSh16.5 billion in the 2024/2025 Financial Year.
According to the Commission’s latest Report of Activities and Financial Statements, the anti-graft agency also unearthed unexplained and/or irregularly acquired assets valued at KSh22.9 billion, which registered a notable increase in recoveries and preventive enforcement compared to past years.
The document, developed under the leadership of Chairperson Dr. David Oginde and Secretary/CEO Abdi A. Mohamud, presents an image of an institution ramping up efforts in their war against corruption in light of their Third Strategic Plan (2023–2028).
During the reporting year, the EACC received 4,183 complaints involving corruption, economic crimes, and ethical misconduct. Of those, 1,846 had merit and were pursued as investigations, marking a 44.1 percent increase from the previous year, symbolizing the ever-growing public trust in the Commission.
In relation to enforcement, the EACC carried out 175 investigations and submitted the cases to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). These cases affect both the national and county governments and were launched on charges of bribery, abuse of office, conflict of interest, and fraud relating to public procurement.
Some of these operations identified multi-billion-shilling scams still at the planning stage, allowing the Commission to halt at least 14 major cases of graft before taxpayers’ money was lost. This was enough to save taxpayers over KSh16.5 billion simply through these operations alone.
In addition, the report shows the prevalence of lack of integrity among public institutions. In fact, the Commission did integrity checks on 166 randomly selected public institutions, which included the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the Ministry of Lands, and the National Police Service. In these, 152 officers were discovered to be failing to meet the necessary integrity requirements.
In addition to these probes, EACC has increased its level of preventive efforts by issuing a “Practical Guide for Corruption Risk Assessment and Management for Public Institutions’. The organization has also developed “Leadership & Integrity Codes for state officers as well as for the Judicial Service Commission, aimed at closing loopholes that facilitate corruption’.
The Commission invested in promotion of ethics through ethics education. The National Integrity Academy of the EACC provided ethics training to public officials. The Commission also invested in outreach programs in schools to instill values of integrity among the youths.
Internationally, the EACC strengthened its relationships with the African Union Advisory Board Against Corruption and established the African Asset Recovery Practitioners Forum. This is an initiative aimed at enhancing international cooperation for the tracking and repatriation of stolen assets.
Despite the milestone progress, the Commission recognized the continued problems of weakness in the legal framework, intimidation of witnesses, and lack of resources that are impeding investigations. However, despite the challenges, the EACC termed the 2024/2025 Financial Year “a turning point” in reaffirming its dedication to accountability and integrity at a time when the war on corruption in Kenya is gaining fresh momentum.