Transparency International ready to partner with government in fighting corruption

Transparency International welcomes the commitment expressed by the President to partner with the organisation in the fight against corruption. TI Board Chair Dr Huguette Labelle and TI-Kenya Board Chair Dr Richard Leakey, and other representatives from the organisation held a meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Cabinet Secretary Devolution and Planning Anne Waiguru yesterday. They separately met with the Attorney General Githu Muigai earlier. The President promised to direct relevant officials in the fight against corruption to engage with TI to review the progress in tackling the vice and provide regular feedback. “TI stands ready to engage constructively with the government in the fight against corruption,” said Dr Labelle.

TI-Kenya will also focus on the extractives industry to contribute towards greater accountability in the management of natural resource so that ordinary people benefit from the proceeds of the mining sector. We urge the government to join the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) to commit to greater transparency in the extractives sector and include civil society in monitoring how this is done.

“We will encourage the government and companies to publicly disclose information of all financial payments in the mining, gas and oil industries to prevent corruption and enable citizens to play their civic duty of holding individuals and institutions to account, ” said the Executive Director, TI-Kenya Samuel Kimeu.

At the global level, TI is advocating for open, inclusive, accountable and effective governance at the heart of the United Nations’ Post-Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework. We believe good governance should form a stand-alone goal and feature as an integral part of other goals. Transparency International is highlighting poor governance as a structural and transnational issue that affects the poor and rich of developing and developed countries alike. This shows the urgent need for a stand-alone governance goal to address the hurdles in development that cannot be effectively tackled through sectoral goals.

“TI has identified a co-relation between corruption and a country’s progress in eradicating poverty,” said Dr Labelle.

For any press enquiries please contact

Collins Baswony, Deputy Communication Officer

Transparency International Kenya
T. +254-20-2727763
E. [email protected]