Investigative Processes and Prosecutorial Strategies in the Fight Against Corruption in Kenya

Abstract

The approaches in tackling corruption in Kenya have generally remained domiciled in three institutions: The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) and the Courts. The EACC is the major agency mandated to undertake independent investigations of corruption-related cases while ODPP is mandated to prosecute them. The manner the cases are prosecuted in court determines the outcome which ultimately determines the level of corruption prevalence in the county. EACC has been anchored under the new constitution of Kenya 2010 under article 79 but, corruption is still prevalent in the country. Therefore, the study’s objective is to examine the extent to which separation of investigation and prosecution has affected the outcome of Kenya’s success in the fight against corruption. Mixed research design was used. Respondents were selected and data was collected across the three institutions. More importantly, the anti-corruption registry records were able to inform the study of how many corruption cases were filed, successfully prosecuted within 2009 and 2014. In analyzing the data using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) trends were statically computed to either confirm the study hypothesis or not. The study concluded that carrying out investigative processes and prosecutorial strategies by EACC and DPP respectively has greatly contributed to meagre success in the fight against corruption in Kenya.