The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has issued an advisory warning state and public officers against branding publicly funded projects and programmes with personal names, images, portraits, or symbols associated with political leaders and parties.
According to EACC, this kind of work is equivalent to an office abuse, a public resource misuse, and an unethical behaviour in disregard of constitutional principles on leadership integrity accountability, and responsible use of public funds.
EACC further said that the reports they have received show that some political leaders have
are branding government project using their personal identities, which the commission consider promoting individual or partisan interests instead of public service.
The anti-graft agency cited Articles 10, 73, 75 and 201(d) of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, alongside provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, 2012 and the Leadership and Integrity Act, 2012, as key legal frameworks guiding the management of public resources.
The Commission reminds state and public officers that they should act in the public interest, embrace transparency and accountability,
and uphold high standards of integrity during their work.
EACC also directs that public organizations should be very careful when it comes to public projects bearing the names images portraits, or symbols of any serving state officers, public officers, political leaders, or political parties before, during, or after implementation.
However, if public attribution is necessary, it should only reveal the government body responsible for the project and whether the project is funded by the National Government or County Government without including personal identifiers.
The Commission emphasized that it will be following rule observance with this order and that offenders might be faced with administrative or legal sanctions.
To protect public resources and foster ethical governance, all state and public officers are called to observe the advisory strictly.
