The law Society of Kenya (LSK) president faith Odhiambo has accused the Ethics and Anti-corruption commission of lagging in its role of taming graft in the country.
Speaking during an interview in a media station, she pointed out the major withdrawal of cases that has been happening, questioning their efforts of getting rid of corruption in the country.
“One institution that has highly failed Kenyans is the EACC. As much as you are saying you are going to run a campaign to end corruption to what end? If we are seeing an assets recovery body known to be one people feared withdrawing cases left, right and center, it takes judges like prof. Sifuna to stop them on their tracks, then you start telling me that you are going to run a campaign to stop corruption, it is highly hypocritical,” said faith
She went ahead and told the EACC to start the corruption operation from within and check their systems before heading to the rest of the public.
The EACC responded to the LSK presidents remarks on X (twitter) saying that they have no powers allowing them to withdraw any graft cases and cornered her for linking it to the recent wave of withdrawal of court cases.
“Does EACC have the power to withdraw corruption case of a criminal nature? For civil matters that the commission takes to court directly, can she state any single case that the commission has ever withdrawn from court?” the commission challenged.
Additionally, the commission revealed that it was actually already in court opposing the withdrawals that it said were inimical to the public interest. Moreover they told the LSK president to familiarize with the Kenya’s anti-corruption laws before pointing fingers.
“The panelist, and advocate of the high court, should have done some basic research to familiarize herself with Kenya’s anti-corruption law enforcement processes and related contemporary issues such as which agency or agencies have withdrawn graft cases,” EACC stated
Last month, the Kenya Human rights commission had raised concerns about efforts by the ODPP to drop all corruption cases involving influential figures in the country claiming there was no enough evidence.
EACC had later opposed the move saying the withdrawal was not good for the public and could lead to misuse of the legal system.
LSK president bashes EACC over alarming withdrawal of graft cases