The anti-graft agency, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) recovered assets worth Sh6.2 billion in 2022, Deputy CEO Abdi Mohamud said Friday.
Speaking during the Commemoration of the International Anti-Corruption Day 2022 at the Kenya School of Government, Mohamud commended the commission for stepping up its fight against corruption in the country.
He said EACC is committed to weeding out corrupt public officials who were illegally acquiring government property for their own personal interests.
“On realization that what drives people to get involved in corruption is the desire to acquire wealth, EACC has prioritized the recovery of stolen assets from public officials and that is our strategic focus,” he stated.
“It is important for us to deprive them of that particular illegally acquired wealth. In the last year alone, EACC has recovered Sh6.2 billion of stolen assets. That is half the budget of EACC.”
Mohamud said the amount was equivalent to half of the annual allocated budget for the commission, something he said shows the magnitude of corruption.
“If EACC was a business entity you recover double your expenditure for that particular year then that would be a growing concern,” he noted.
He said EACC was holding public officials to account by ensuring they participate in wealth audits.
“It has also resulted in the development of the law… out of the cases that we present in the court we have been able to reach a situation where in this country, public officials are supposed to account for everything that they own, we call it ‘prove it or lose it to the public,” he said.
