EACC CEO Mbarak urges the media to help in the fight against corruption

The Star Kenya

EACC CEO Twalib Mbarak has urged the media to partner with the Commission in the fight against corruption. Mbarak said the media was in a better place to help the anti-graft agency, considering its role in the country. https://bit.ly/45O0GhO

Transcript

00:00 So let's talk about the EACC in the war against corruption.

00:06 And I can say that one of the main focus

00:10 that we've been doing as a commission

00:12 is that because of our number that is small

00:16 and the magnitude of the corruption cases,

00:19 we are trying to do a four-way approach.

00:23 One, the enforcement part of it, and we

00:26 are looking at big cases as opposed to small cases.

00:31 We have a problem of having so many cases that are reported.

00:35 And unlike other organizations like the Syria

00:37 patrol office in the US and UK, where they just

00:40 look at big cases only, even if somebody comes and reports

00:45 about a chief having a bribe, you have to follow it.

00:47 But then you ask, is it possible that with this minimum budget,

00:52 I send officers from Mombasa to go and investigate

00:55 a chief who was arrested for 200 borg.

00:57 And these officers will have to take a statement.

00:59 They'll have to stay for three days.

01:01 And when they come, they'll be paid their money then.

01:04 So we look at grand corruption.

01:07 And we also look at issues to do with asset recovery.

01:13 And the focus now is asset recovery.

01:15 And I want to ask the media--

01:18 now, this is where we are coming from-- how we can partner

01:20 with you people.

01:22 The media will be the first entity that can assist ESC

01:27 in asset recovery.

01:28 You are the people who move around.

01:30 You mix with people on the ground, the citizens.

01:33 And once we partner with you, the issue of asset recovery

01:38 will be very, very successful.

01:41 We are looking at also how we can build capacity

01:43 building to journalists.

01:45 He talked about journalists being sued.

01:49 We know.

01:50 And sometimes it's deliberate to subdue you people

01:53 and to bring down the media houses.

01:55 One thing that I like about the Kenyan media houses

01:58 is that it's very, very neutral.

02:00 We have no problem with media houses.

02:03 Sometimes we have an issue with maybe a certain journalist.

02:08 And when we tell the media houses

02:10 that we think the journalists did not report this matter

02:14 subjectively, we have never taken it to court,

02:16 and we will never do that.

02:17 Because we know the benefits.

02:19 We know the benefits of the media to the ESC.

02:22 I'll give a very good example.

02:24 When I was serving with the ESC in 2006 to 2010,

02:29 I used a journalist in one of the main media houses

02:33 to prevent the hiving of Nairobi National Park,

02:39 where there was a plan to hive 600 acres of Nairobi National

02:43 Park.

02:44 And we were helpless, because the collusion was very, very

02:47 organized.

02:49 It had very good lawyers who were trying--

02:52 I mean, not lawyers.

02:52 I mean, very good planners.

02:58 They went to the survey.

03:02 They looked at the document.

03:04 They went to land office.

03:05 They did a proper research about Nairobi National Park.

03:08 Actually, that is when I knew it is not

03:10 called Nairobi National Park.

03:11 If you look at the title of that place,

03:13 it's called Royal Nairobi National Park, 1935,

03:17 if I'm not wrong.

03:19 So they had planned to move even the beacons.

03:23 Through collusion with land officers.

03:26 And it came as an anonymous report.

03:28 I was the head of the undercover unit.

03:30 So what did I do?

03:32 We could not sue those guys, because they are not committed.

03:35 When an offense is in the offing,

03:37 there's no criminal aspect of it.

03:40 So I got a journalist.

03:42 We explained to him.

03:43 And he gave it a two-page cover letter in one of the print

03:49 media.

03:50 And those guys vanished.

03:52 And that was history.

03:54 Otherwise, if it was not for that journalist,

03:56 600 acres of Nairobi National Park

03:58 were going to be-- it was going to be hiked illegally.

04:02 And whatever they were going to put,

04:04 either as an estate or an industry, nobody knows.

04:09 So partnership with the media is very important.

04:12 And the other thing is that-- how many minutes to go?

04:15 Three.

04:18 Give me five.

04:22 So the other thing that we need to do

04:24 is please give us the support in terms of coverage.

04:30 And we're not saying that we want to be replaced.

04:32 You can critique us.

04:34 Because [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]

04:39 So you come and tell us, here you're going wrong.

04:42 Here you're not doing very well.

04:45 [AUDIO OUT]

04:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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