Matiang'i calls for East Africa cooperation to combat transnational crimes

Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has called for effective prosecution systems to combat corruption.

Speaking in Mombasa yesterday, Dr Matiang’i (pictured) also noted that the setting up of these systems should not be funded by foreign donors to make them independent.

Matiang’i was addressing the eighth annual congress of the East Africa Association of Prosecutors in Diani.

He said for the prosecution to be fully independent, East African states must provide adequate financial resources and political goodwill.

The CS urged institutions investigating and prosecuting crimes to work in harmony, avoiding competition to fulfill their mandate. “We cannot go anywhere in the fight against corruption and transnational crime with weak prosecution systems,” Matiang'i said, adding: "We do not have the luxury of weak systems in combating crime.”

The CS said single states could no longer combat crimes that run across nations without mutual legal assistance, adding that criminals had demonstrated an increased capacity to flee to different nations to hide and reestablish networks.