The Architects Alliance (TAA) convened leading voices from across Kenya’s professional spectrum to confront a sobering question: “Professionals: Corrupt by Choice or Design?”
The seventh episode of The Lift, TAA’s signature talk series, brought together architects, lawyers, policymakers, and anti-corruption advocates for a candid discussion on the ethical decline within the country’s professional institutions.
Delivering a powerful keynote, Archbishop Dr. David Oginde, Chairperson of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), challenged professionals to confront their complicity in enabling corruption.“Grand corruption cannot occur without technical endorsement—whether it’s through falsified designs, inflated legal budgets, or overlooked safety standards,” said Dr. Oginde. “Professionals are not just victims; they are often the perpetrators or enablers of corruption.”
He cited real-world cases, including the persistence of ghost workers and collapsing buildings, attributing them to compromised professional oversight.“Who signs off on these unsafe structures? Who approves payments for work not done? These are professionals,” he said, urging for a collective return to integrity.
TAA President Sylvia Kasanga, an architect and former Senator, moderated the event and underscored the influential role professionals play in shaping public life.“We do not operate in isolation—we influence policy, shape the built environment, and interact with public systems,” Kasanga noted. “Through The Lift, we are calling out the silence among professionals that enables systemic dysfunction.”
The President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) Faith Othiambo echoed these sentiments, stressing the need for internal reforms within professional bodies to rebuild integrity from within.“The rot we see in institutions often starts with the silence, or active participation, of highly trained individuals,” the LSK President remarked. “We must reform from within if we are to change the national narrative.”
She emphasized that corruption is embedded in the very architecture of governance systems—often crafted and maintained by professionals themselves.“Kenya doesn’t suffer from a lack of laws, but from a lack of enforcement. Professionals design systems with loopholes they later exploit,” she observed.
Attendees agreed that the conversation should go beyond architecture, pointing to the shared ethical responsibilities of engineers, doctors, lawyers, and planners.
