The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has accused the Judiciary of making it difficult for them to prosecute governors.
Chief executive officer Halakhe Waqo claimed his officers are overwhelmed as the Judiciary always issues orders barring them from arresting governors.The commission, he said, has so far arrested nine governors but they have managed to secure their freedom from the courts.
“The courts are our greatest problem. We have taken nine governors to court and they always get orders barring us from even touching them,” he said. Appearing before the departmental committee on Justice and Legal Affairs to defend their supplementary budget, Waqo asked the MPs to help the commission deal with the rogue governors.
He said apart from the courts, the county chiefs supporters have also made it hard for them to arrest governors as they always accompany them to the commission offices whenever they are summoned to record statements.
He said it is unfortunate that governors are always accompanied by huge crowds singing and dancing as if they are attending parties. “We have not been defeated and we will not be defeated, what we are saying is we need your help. Most of the time, when the governors come to our offices, you accompany them yet you are the ones who later on bash us that we are not doing our job,” he said.
Waqo was responding to a question by the committee vice-chairperson Priscilla Nyokabi, who sought to know what form of help the commission would require from the committee to help in the fight against graft.
Nyokabi also sought to know whether the commission would require Parliament to pass a law to ensure that the drama that is normally seen whenever governors are summoned to the commission offices will no longer be there.
While challenging the commission to deal with corruption cases, Nyokabi also welcomed the suggestion to have the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) and the EACC in the same building saying this will go along way in reducing the drama.
“The idea of having you work together in the same office with EACC is the best so that we can stop this drama that we normally see whenever governors are summoned,”she said.
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