Kenya: Body to sensitise citizens on graft
Posted by African Press International on October 9, 2009
Nairobi (Kenya) — An anti-corruption body will conduct a countrywide civic education campaign to enlighten Kenyans on graft trends and ways to arrest them.
The National Anti-Corruption Campaign Steering Committee said Thursday the crusade that aims at changing the public perception and attitudes towards the vice will also incorporate calls to MPs to pay taxes.
“Citizens must be told that it is their right to participate in the utilisation of public funds and question their leaders on the same,” the committee’s acting director David Gathii said.
“We are going to involve the public directly so they can stop pointing fingers but take action at their individual levels,” he added.
According to Mr Gathii, the new initiative has been necessitated by the realisation that Kenyans hardly take part in the management of devolved funds.
This came out of a study NACCSC carried out last year on the devolved funds including the constituency development fund, local authority transfer fund and the various government bursaries among others.
“Kenyans are on the supply side fuelling corruption impliedly yet they do not realise they have power to fight the evil,” he said as he launched the Nairobi East district anti-corruption civilian oversight committee (DACCOC) sensitisation workshop at the Railway Training Institute.
The director disclosed that the Committee has established 17 DACCOCs at pilot level across the country as it targets to roll them in all districts to steer the public anti-corruption education forums.
A member of the steering committee Mr Francis Ng’ang’a described the new campaign “a war never before seen in the country.”
“We are seeing our country sink because of a few evil people,” observed Mr Ng’ang’a, “We now want Kenyans in their own respective positions to take charge.”
The former trade unionist observed that corruption had subjected millions of Kenyans to poverty while a handful continue to enrich themselves by looting the public coffers.
He added that MPs reluctance to pay taxes also amounted to corruption, which the campaign would also bring to the people.
“It is evil for individuals to be overpaid while so many Kenyans are unemployed. We want to see proper distribution of resources with all Kenyans paying taxes to the government.”
Funds for the campaign have already been obtained from the government and donors said Mr Gathii.
NACCSC was established in May 2004 to create awareness and mobilise Kenyans to eradicate corruption.
Its members are drawn from government, religious organisations, media, civil society, universities, women’s organisations and the private sector.
source.nation.ke
