The Ethics and Anti Corruption commissioner Prof Jane Onsongo has resigned.
The commissioner cites infighting within the commission and the secretariat as the reason for her exit, saying it has become impossible to effectively execute her mandate at the anti graft body.
Prof Onsongo attributes her decision to boardroom wars that have pit the commission chair Mumo Matemu and the CEO Halakhe Waqo against each other causing a rift in the commission.
“I have tendered my resignation. The division has made it impossible to work in the commission,” said Prof Osongo.
But trouble did not just start brewing now. Earlier in the month, Prof Onsongo and vice chair Irene Keino were stark in the middle of controversy when they petitioned the President to help remove the commission chair Mumo Matemu from office. However, they claimed later that they never sent the petition to State House.
Prof Osongo acknowledges signing two letters that were meant for dispatch to State House.
Interference with operational matters
In the first document dated September 9th, 2014, Keino and Prof Onsongo petitioned the President to initiate the process of removing Matemu.
Key among their grievances, is a claim that Matemu “severally interferes with operational matters and the motive is sinister. For instance, he requests for certain investigation files through unofficial methods to request for a status on a file through the CEO. We have since requested the CEO to put in controls that will curtail the interference”
The letter further said that Matemu “has an insecure personality where he thinks everybody is after his seat (chairperson) thus the need to go on a negative smear campaign on all senior staff and fellow commissioners. His leadership style is ‘divide and rule’ whereby he has a different personal relationship with fellow commissioners and senior staff which creates disunity and infighting”
In another letter dated January 15th, 2015 and signed by the two commissioners and addressed to the chair, Matemu, the two commissioners dissociate themselves with the petition seeking his removal.
The letter says in part, “the issues raised therein are no longer current or valid. We therefore dissociate ourselves from the said letter and irrevocably recant the sentiments in the said letter attributable to us”
This resignation comes hot on the heels of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s renewed efforts to crack the whip on corrupt officials in government and those in previous regimes.
Focus now turns on the remaining two commissioners, the chair Matemu and his vice chair Keino.
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