By Agwanda Saye
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is facing
insurmountable challenges towards recovery of illegally acquired
public assets. EACC Lawyer Ms. Judith Shamallah decried lack of
political goodwill in recovery of illegally and irregularly acquired
public assets including property belonging to the Judiciary. “Some
public institutions play hide and seek when EACC demand to peruse
their original documents during investigations,” Ms. Shamallah said.
Ms. Shamallah was presenting a paper titled Recovery of Illegally
Acquired Public Assets during the Law Society of Kenya (LSK)
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Seminar on Integrity Issues,
Threshold and State Service at Ole Sereni Hotel in Nairobi. She
regretted hurdles in the recovery of investments/assets stashed
overseas following several factors including communication barrier.
”Non-English speaking countries spend weeks or even months before
responding to our communication giving culprits time to transfer
illegally acquired investments to other countries,” Ms. Shamallah
said. She said that other countries dragged their feet while
responding to official demand letters from EACC.
However, she said that the EACC recently repossessed grabbed property
belonging to the Judiciary, public hospital in Uasin Gishu, houses in
Woodley (Nairobi), Mt. Elgon hospital (Kitale), Uhuru Gardens
(Mombasa), several plots excised from Karura forest , over l00 acres
of land in Ngong forest, acres of Government land and houses in
Milimani suburbs (Kakamega) among others. “The EACC is working with
the Judiciary and Executive towards overcoming challenges preventing
it from recovery of illegally acquired public assets,” Ms. Shamallah
said.
She said that most graft cases touch on the big shots in society who
fight to hold on to illegally acquired public property.
Ms. Shamallah said that lengthy court cases are among challenges the
Constitutional body encounters in daily practice. “Lengthy Court cases
challenging investigations and recovery proceedings by EACC is a
nightmare,” Ms. Shamallah said. She said noted that there is also Bank
Secrecy law in a country like Switzerland where accessing information
during investigations is near impossible.
Ends