An Assessment of the inter-agency framework in Kenya’s anti-corruption efforts, 2018-2022
Keywords:
corruption, multi-agency teams, framework, case study, mixed methodsAbstract
In 2015 blatant corruption in Kenya, estimated at a third of the country’s annual budget, occasioned the declaration of the vice as a national threat. Consequently, a Multi-Agency Team (MAT) comprising the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC), National Intelligence Service (NIS), Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), Office of Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), Asset Recovery Agency (ARA) and Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) was constituted in 2015. The operationalisation of the MAT was heralded by the appointment of career intelligence and security officers to head some of these key agencies, creating a strategic and operational MAT framework. Despite the adoption of the MAT, more grand corruption cases such as the Ksh 2.3 Billion KEMSA scandal of 2020 came to the limelight. Using a case study approach, this study assessed the effectiveness of MAT, its challenges and areas of potential improvement. Eight in-depth interviews were conducted. Using stratified sampling method, a sample size of 163 respondets was selected across the five agencies. For purposes of this study, the agencies have been pseudo-named A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5. The study established that 74.7% respondents had been involved in the MAT with 88.52% of the respondents indicating that the MAT was effective due to synergy, clarity and effective resource pooling. However, a lack of MAT framework, and corruption were established as some of the challenges. The study concluded that the MAT framework needs to be recalibrated to ensure the realisation of its intended outcome. The study recommends that there is need to anchor the MAT framework in law; resource all agencies adequately; and build capacities of the agencies before establishing any MAT.
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