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| NEWS > 30 May 2006 |
Other related articles:
Australia: Top cop in suicide
A HIGH-ranking police officer is in a coma in hospital after trying to commit suicide in a hotel room.
Superintendent Paul Nolan, who was recently suspended from the NSW Police Force because he is under investigation by the Police Integrity Commission, was found unconscious about midnight on Tuesday.
The nature of the PIC investigation is unclear.
It is the latest tragedy to rock the NSW Police Force, following the suicide of two other police officers this year.
Supt Nolan, described as highly regarded by colleagues, was found in a room at Noah's on ... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Kenya Times - Kenya
30 May 2006
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Kenya under graft siege, says
IN an unprecedented move, the government yesterday admitted that gross corruption had penetrated all its sectors and was worse than many thought.
Coming just a day after the release of the Transparency International (Kenya Chapter) report that indicated that graft levels had reverted to the pre-Narc era, Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua, said the report’s revelations had just scratched the surface, with the country having earned itself a reputation as one of the most corrupt in the world.
“We are a country under siege by a monster. We need to act or perish,” she said.
And while insisting that the fight against corruption calls for collective responsibility and should not be viewed as one for the government, the Minister called on the public to get rid of the notion that graft only exists in the public sector and that its perpetrators were only public officers.
Said she: “Yet we all know that corruption is as rife in the private sector and civil society organisations as it is in government.”
Karua’s admission that corruption was rampant in government comes only two weeks after we exclusively reported that the government had admitted in a confidential letter to ministers, Permanent Secretaries and parastal chiefs that it had lost the war on graft due to lack of political will.
In a confidential letter signed by Head of the Civil Service Francis Muthaura to all Permanent Secretaries and copied to the Vice-President, ministers and their assistants, he conceded that the government had lost the war against corruption due to the inability of the KACC to access wealth declaration records of cabinet ministers suspected of corruption.
Although the ministers have signed the code of conduct which binds them to take responsibility for their unethical conduct and facilitates scrutiny of their wealth declarations, the KACC is unable to access these declaration forms by both MPs and ministers.
According to the letter, the government was in limbo as to how to investigate and take action against those within and are suspected of corruption.
Speaking when she opened the Kenya Anti-Corruption stakeholders conference to deliberate on its action plan at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi, Karua said corruption could only be defeated if fought on all fronts and as a collaborative effort.
Law enforcement agencies alone cannot eliminate corruption given its pervasive and conspiratorial nature, Karua said.
The conference’s main objective was to discuss and validate a draft National Anti-Corruption Plan which has been developed over a period of time by a multi-sectoral national coordinating committee under the auspices of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC).
Karua said the various legislations put in place by the government over the last three years were, however, bearing fruit, as evidenced by the steady economic growth from 0 to 4.5 per cent over the last financial year, and better services delivered by public institutions.
She said if the reforms were consistently implemented and sustained, the economy could record even higher growth and service delivery to Kenyans.
The country’s reputation of being one of the most corrupt in the world, the Minister added, shames it and throws into ridicule the efforts of the many law abiding citizens who toil for an honest living.
“It consigns into the dustbin of history the heroic services which honest and hard-working public servants render selflessly to the nation. It blights the great achievements that have been recorded by this beautiful and proud country,” she said.
In spite of the government having put in place policies to fight graft, Karua said, laws and institutions alone cannot eliminate it from society, hence the need for their rigorous implementation by those responsible.
Citing the example of parastatal heads who she said have been colluding with lawyers to defraud state corporations of millions of shillings, she said the shameful reputation the country had acquired could not have been possible were it not for the impunity with which those entrusted with their management plunder those organisations.
She said the idea of a National Anti-Corruption Plan was timely for Kenya, with the government supporting it wholeheartedly, adding that it would no doubt solidify the country’s collective effort in ensuring that incentives for corruption were eliminated in the public and private sectors.
The imperatives to reduce the inclination towards corrupt conduct, the Minister said, must be factored into every corporate and organisational plan.
She added: “From now on, the way the government does business must be efficient, transparent, accountable and in accordance with sound business principles.” KACC Director Aaron Ringera also called for concerted efforts in fighting the vice, saying the fight against graft cannot be entrusted to one institution such as KACC as it is an all pervading social and economic vice which cannot be defeated without the joint collaboration of the government, the private sector, civil society, the media, development partners, the international community and the people of Kenya.
He said KACC was confident that a National Anti-Corruption Plan is crucial in the government’s efforts to mainstream the anti-corruption agenda and promote ethics and integrity in the country’s individual, corporate and social structures.
The TI report released on Monday indicated that while in 2004, on average the highest bribe was Sh13,115, in 2005, the figure shot up to Sh16,359.
New government institutions that were not involved in bribery before emerged as new dens of graft. Among them are the Prisons department, which joined the ranks of the Police force, which topped the list.
Access to basic health services, school and colleges and other public utilities ranked second in attracting bribery, the report indicated.
More people were finding it normal to give or take bribes, unlike in 2003 and 2004, when the fear of being caught was high. And although ranked first, the police force impunity, the report said, had dropped from 44.9 percent to 38.8 percent.
The KACC boss, Ringera yesterday said the development of a National Anti-Corruption Plan had been informed by the insight that the war against corruption in Kenya had hitherto been largely ineffective for the reason that it lacked vision, was disjointed and incoherent.
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