The power wrangles in Kenya have proven to be the toughest issue when it comes to handling any cases involving the top bras. No one wants to be made inferior .
It seems this is the same force that is undermining the determination of the state in the fight against corruption which is the deadliest menace affecting the country right now.
But how can the fight against corruption be realistic when the agencies entitled to bring the sanity engage in fights?
An incident on Wednesday evening where police foiled an attempt by anti-graft investigators to arrest two detectives has revealed a simmering feud between the two agencies.
The attempt by four officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to lay a trap and seize two officers attached to the Kabete Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has been interpreted by some police officers as an attempt to portray the DCI as corrupt.
The EACC claimed the operation failed when police shot in the air to scare away its detectives. For a year now, the DCI has worked hand-in-glove with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to the apparent exclusion of the EACC.
The appointment in January of George Kinoti as the DCI boss and that of Noordin Haji later in March as the DPP gave fresh impetus to the fight against runaway corruption.
Public confidence in the war on graft had waned, especially given the EACC had become dysfunctional, with the forced resignation of its commissioners in 2015 and the ouster of yet another chairman in 2016.
It is against that backdrop that all major corruption cases are now being investigated by the DCI and, with the DPP’s approval, top officials have found themselves detained, particularly on Fridays. The EACC appears to have been sidelined in the renewed crackdown.
All major cases where high-profile suspects have been charged, from the National Youth Service, Kenya Power, Kenya Pipeline, Kenya Bureau of Standards, Kenya Revenue Authority and the National Hospital Insurance Fund, among others, are currently being handled by the DCI.
At Integrity Centre, the EACC headquarters, there has been a feeling that the DPP and the Asset Recovery Agency are comfortable working with Mr Kinoti, yet the agency is mandated to handle matters graft.
Kinoti’s office feels that the EACC is well funded while its officers are well trained and remunerated, yet they have posted a dismal performance.
This is compared to the DCI that has a wider investigative mandate, yet its officers are poorly paid. But EACC Spokesman Yasin Amaro sought to play down any rivalry claims, saying: “Through the Multi-Agency Taskforce (MAT) we have been working very well with the DCI and we shall continue working so because it’s in the interest of our mandate.”
The source of wrangles continues and continues with concrete solution yet to be established to enable running of both agencies in a unified manner.