Kenyans who turn a blind eye on bribery and its descendants now risk a fine of 5 Million or a 10-year jail term, should the legislature approve a law seeking to prune graft godfathers and their generations.
The proposed Amendment is solely based on Section 14 of the Bribery Act, which is set to be amended to allow ‘any person’ to report any suspected case of bribery to EACC. Previously, the act was limited to only those holding a position of responsibility.
To remedy the limiting provision, the state now wants all Kenyans to hold the responsibility of reporting graft cases, witnessed and suspected. Under the proposed Anti-graft legislation, corruption cases will need to be tabled with EACC within 24 hours.
“Any person who is convicted of an offence under this Act, for which no penalty is expressly provided, shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding Sh 5 million or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years, or to both,” reads penalties outlined in the Bribery Act, 2016.
The provision comes at a time when the Government of Kenya is fighting to contain serial loss of taxpayers’ money to individual coffers. The country is shackled in back to back corruption scandals, well knitted in bogus tenders.
So far, the country is said to lose a third of its annual state budget to individual coffers.
