Mount Kenya University (MKU) and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) have agreed to partner, leveraging the innovation and energy of young people to foster a culture of integrity.

The Chairman and Founder of MKU, Prof. Simon Gicahru, said it is encouraging that EACC is getting to be known for training on integrity and corruption prevention rather than for curative measures.

Prof Gicharu, who is also the Chairman of the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD), also indicated that integrity and ethics, when cascaded downward and offered at the CBC curriculum programme and taught to learners at various levels, both at the Primary and secondary schools, become easier to embrace within the community.

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He noted that inculcating integrity in young learners would help bring up a conscious generation who will not need to be heavily monitored in their day-to-day lives.

“I look forward to a future where schools and universities will have no examination invigilators because everybody will have been trained on ethics and integrity, and they will not need any invigilators during the examinations… a day when everybody will take care of themselves and regulations without being invigilated or supervised. This would be a great vision which should happen one day,” he said.

Prof Gicharu added that the MKU-EACC partnership would be instrumental in the training on integrity within the country, where MKU’s sister organisation, TV47, and other available resources shall also be used in spreading the integrity discourse to have more people participate in the awareness on the ideals of good governance and responsible citizenship.

Prof Deogratius Jaganyi, the Vice-Chancellor of Mount Kenya University, also said integrity could be a common unit where every student must take it and members of the community as well could be engaged through student-driven engagements.

The MKU VC said this as he also promised that MKU and EACC shall jointly develop a course on integrity to be offered at MKU for the Kenyan Community in general. Commissioner Dr Monica W. Muiru, the Commission's Vice-Chairman, passed the apology from the Commission Chair, Commissioner David Oginde, as she led the EACC delegation which also included Col. Rtd. Commissioner Alfred M. Mshimba and other officers.

The EACC team explained about the Kenya Integrity Leadership Forum (KILF) under the EACC, which provides a platform for dialogue on integrity at universities with the view to involve the youth who represent a vital majority in the fight against graft. This partnership and other similar ones being established are designed to reduce the tolerance of corruption.

KILF is an EACC initiative that brings together different stakeholders, both public and private sector actors, to advance integrity.

“We are targeting the education sector through universities to reach out to the youth. This is their productive age in terms of innovations and research, and we encourage them to innovate and research on areas of integrity and good governance. We are advancing awareness creation to reduce tolerance for corruption among the youth. We are encouraging them to shun corruption and speak out where they see it." Said the EACC team, adding that, in instilling integrity and ethical values among the young people, EACC hoped to dismantle the myth that ethical behavior is a hindrance to success.

"We can work with the young people in the universities and use this demographic population to advance integrity in the country with the notion that values are inculcated at a young age. That way, we can build a generation that shuns corruption and knows that ethics pays and not that when you advance ethics, you are being disadvantaged.”

This new collaboration between MKU and EACC shall involve a number of activities, including a public forum that will be held in June 2026 at MKU’s Mwai Kibaki Convention Centre with an ultimate goal of ensuring that the impact of this partnership extends far beyond the lecture halls.