Crisis at Kenya’s anti-corruption commission as plot to oust officials revealed

NAIROBI: A plan to force Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission (EACC) commissioners Jane Onsongo and Irene Keino to resign came to light Tuesday after a day of drama.

Last night, reports emerged that Onsongo finally bowed to pressure from top State officials who had earlier pressed her and Keino to quit.

And earlier, EACC had alluded to the swirling reports about their fate at the commission, clarifying that Onsongo had not resigned and blamed corruption cartels of seeking to ground the commission.

“The EACC finds it necessary to clarify and negate the unfounded rumours and wish to affirm to the general public that commissioner Prof Jane Onsongo has not resigned and is not contemplating to doing so. On the contrary, the commission is intact and working together in implementing its constitutional mandate of fighting corruption in the country,” read part of the statement.

The statement added the rumours were calculated to bring disrepute and disharmony within the commission and scuttle the momentum created by the commission in the fight against corruption.

CORRUPTION CARTELS

“In all probability, the corruption cartels are working towards a situation where there are no commissioners within the commission after which they will bring back the argument that the shell that the commission will become after commissioners’ exit is incapable of taking legal actions against them,” added the statement.

The commission’s statement reportedly was triggered by events earlier in the day where Onsongo and Keino were said to have been pressured by top officials to quit.

The two stormed out of the venue where they had been invited for a meeting after rejecting attempts to coerce them to resign.

Ms Keino is the vice-chairperson of the commission while Prof Onsongo is a commissioner. The chairman is Mumo Matemu.

At the meeting, the three State officials asked the two commissioners to resign on grounds that the public does not have confidence in them.

Sources said they told them that they had instructions from “above” that they should resign forthwith.

“The commissioners were told with no uncertain terms that its in public interest for them to resign and after much haggling they stuck to their guns,” a senior EACC official conversant with the dram told The Standard.

But the commissioners declined to pen their signatures on papers they had been offered.

The discussions degenerated to drama, after the three resorted to place the two commissioners in different rooms in a bid to convince each separately to quit, officials said.

At one time, one of the commissioners was offered a job as a deputy ambassador to “prove that the request to step down was not in bad faith” from the Government side. However, not convinced, Keino stormed the room where Prof Onsongo had been placed and asked her not to relent.

Tuesday, our attempts to get a comment from the three officials were futile as several calls made to their telephone numbers went unanswered.

By the time of going to Press, neither of the commissioners was reachable. But officials close to them said they were “shaken and safe”.

During the drama, some State operatives began mobilising journalists to head to Integrity Centre on claims that Prof Onsongo had accepted to quit. On reaching at Integrity Centre, the journalists were informed there was nothing like that.