Why top civil servants, senior managers are on EACC radar

The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) says it is now targeting senior public officers who oversee the employment of persons with fake or forged academic credentials.

EACC Chief Executive Abdi Mohamud says officers undertaking recruitment exercise have a responsibility to conduct due diligence before hiring an employee.

Failure to conduct background checks can only mean the bosses are complacent or negligent of their duties and thus liable for prosecution according to the anti-graft agency.

Mohamud said a recent probe of mass hirings by two agencies established a trend where several individuals were hired, yet they had fake papers. In one agency, seven senior employees have already been arraigned.

Accounting officers who include PSs and CEOs, heads of parastatals and heads of human resource departments will not be spared in the probe on fake papers, EACC says.

“By the time we are done with these investigations, if we find that those who were conducting the recruitment were negligible, we will take them to court or submit them to the Ombudsman to institute administrative actions,” Mohamud said.

Mohamud was speaking on Wednesday morning, during a Virtual session that brought together Principal Secretaries (PSs), chairpersons, members of boards, CEOs and corporation secretaries of parastatals following a directive of Head of Public Service Felix Koskei.

The anti-graft boss said the enactment of the Conflicts of Interest law now gives the agency more powers to enforce integrity values and fight corruption.

Among the new powers are the seizure of assets acquired irregularly by public officers, who fail to declare their interest in a business, investments or property. This includes assets owned by close family and associates of any public officer.

“The EACC has powers to seek forfeiture of any undeclared assets or unexplained assets by public servants, including those owned by family members,” he said.

Mohamud said EACC and the Attorney General’s office are currently developing regulations to give effect to the new law and will be presented in parliament soon to replace those under the Public Officers Ethics Act, which are currently being used.

The anti-graft body also warned that actions of some public officers are endangering public assets owned by institutions due to contracts that expose them.

“Our attention has been drawn to various cases where officers disregard state corporations’ assets, or sign contracts that are detrimental to those institutions,” the EACC boss warned.

He cited a case of a TIVET from Western Kenya that was being auctioned, with EACC stepping in to stop the move that could have seen the institution lose its bus, among other assets.

“Yet that institution has a board and management and entered into a contract that exposed its assets. We have since moved to court to institute recovery of the assets that were being auctioned,” he said.

The commission says it is intensifying operations to crack down on bribery incidents, which are contributing to Kenya’s poor rating internationally in the bribery index.

“As a commission, we do understand that bribery is a major problem in the public service, including parastatals. Young people who want to seek IDs are asked for a bribe, and employers are asking for bribes.”

The session was part of a three-week directive by Koskei to all public servants to attend mandatory online sensitisation and training on addressing inefficiency, impunity and corruption.

The trainings and sensitisation are being used as a forum to reiterate the roles of various officers in addressing impunity, indiscipline, inefficiency and corruption in the civil service.

The exercise that commenced on October 29, 2025, is slated to end today, November 12, 2025, according to a circular from Koskei’s office.