MPs have rejected senators’ sweeping amendments that watered down a key anti-corruption law fronted by the state to combat the vice.
In a move that marks a big win against corruption, the lawmakers have disallowed changes to the Conflict of Interest Bill, 2023.
With the rejection, the Bill now heads for mediation where an equal number of lawmakers will be picked from either House to a joint committee to strike a balance.
The Senate changes, among others, allowed state officers and their families to do business with the government.
“This Bill is critical in the fight against corruption. The dilution that the Senate has visited on this Bill makes this Bill unworkable,” National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wa said.
The Kikuyu MP added that the amendments create a very fertile ground for corruption and conflict of interest.
“We must be the bigger brother between the two Houses, we must be the House that stands with the people who have spoken loudly that matters touching on conflict of interest and theft of public resources must come to an end," he said.
In the Senate changes that also angered the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the lawmakers deleted at least 20 clauses and amended more than 15 others, overhauling the state-backed Bill that sought to tame runaway graft.
They removed the provision in the original Bill that barred state officers from directly or indirectly doing business with the government.
“A public officer shall not acquire an interest in a partnership, private company or any other legal entity that is a party to a contract with the reporting (state) entity in which the public officer serves,” the deleted section reads.
The lawmakers removed a schedule to do away with an initial amendment that barred state officers from trading with the state.
The provision states, “A state organ or public entity shall not enter into a contract for procurement with a state or public officer.”
“A state or public officer shall not directly or indirectly award or influence the award of a contract to the state officer's or public officer's spouse or child or the officer's business associate or agent,” it says.
The MPs scrapped a requirement for wealth declaration to the EACC by state officers.
The senators also removed the provision disengaging public officers from any other gainful employment, which is inherently incompatible with their official duties.
The senators also stripped the anti-graft agency of the mandate to oversee the management of conflicts of interest for public officers.
They have denied the commission powers to develop an effective system for reporting violations of the law after deleting several provisions.
MPs said the senators’ changes are an insult to the war against corruption in government.
“We as Parliament, if we can water down the Bill that we passed here to make it practically impossible to hold accountable elected leaders, then we are taking this country into the abyss,” Funyula MP Wilberforce Oundo said.
“That's why I support, as moved by the Majority leader, that what Senate did was a great disservice to this country.”
Dagoretti South MP John Kiarie said the issue of conflict of interest in the management of affairs of government is a thorn in the flesh for the country.
“Where this House was seeking to remedy some of these maladies, it looks like the Senate is keen on taking us back to a place where we are not able to counter the issue of conflict of interest,” he said.
The EACC, whose powers have been diluted in the changes, has bitterly protested the Senate amendment as a clawback on the fight against graft.
“The most tragic change by the Senate is a proposal to delete the offence of conflict of interest from the existing law, hence allowing state officials and their family members to directly trade with public institutions they serve in,” EACC chief executive Twalib Mbarak said.
“This is despite the conflict of interest being the bedrock of corruption scandals investigated by EACC, out of which, thousands of suspects, including 10 governors have been charged in court.”
Calls for lifestyle audits on public officers dominated demands to President William Ruto by young protesters who link top state officers to massive graft due to their largesse and opulent lifestyles.