Commission Builds Capacity in the Cooperative Sector

18:09:19: “Corruption adversely affects the meaningful development of a country. Bad governance hinders access to human rights, health education, and social economic rights,” so said a presenter at a recent capacity building workshop for housing cooperatives held in Machakos County.

Speaking during the official opening of the two-day workshop, EACC Vice Chairperson Commissioner Sophia Lepuchirit noted that the workshop marked a “very important step in the actualization of the partnership in the fight against corruption between the Commission and the State Department for Cooperatives”.

She echoed the

President’s call to actualize the Big Four Agenda saying: ”The Housing sector is a critical component of the Big Four agenda of Government towards the provision of affordable and accessible housing to all Kenyans. This is line with Article 43 of the Constitution of Kenya which provides for socio economic rights such as the right of all individuals to accessible, adequate housing and to reasonable standards of sanitation.”

The Commissioner challenged the housing sector to manage public resources prudently to ensure that they support the President in achieving the Big Four Agenda by providing affordable housing.

 “Will it not be a joy to see a family without a house getting a home?” she posed, adding: That will put a smile on your faces.” She also emphasized the need for integrity in the cooperative moment, noting that the rights and vision as articulated by the law and government require an integrity based system to achieve the Big Four Agenda.  She said the Commission was committed to building capacity in public sector institutions to prevent corruption and unethical conduct. In the same vein, she warned that the Commission would continue to judiciously discharge its mandate without fear or favour especially in enforcing the law to ensure that culprits were punished.

Since 2013, she said, the Commission had received 302 allegations of corruption and unethical conduct within the housing cooperatives sector. Out of these, 43 were marked for investigation.

EACC Lower Eastern region Deputy Manager Emmanuel Arunga emphasized the need for partnerships in the fight against corruption. He noted: “The war against corruption and unethical conduct cannot be won single handedly by the Commission, but with support from all of you we will be able to slay the dragon of corruption in our country.”  He pledged the Commission’s support in the provision of technical support.

The participants made resolutions among them to;

• Develop Code of Conduct and Ethics for their societies’ members, boards and staff.
• Establish Corruption Prevention Committees (CPCs).
• Develop corruption prevention policy.
• Introduce gift and conflict of interest register for their societies.
• Cascade to all members and leaders of their societies what they had learnt.
• Entrench good corporate governance.
• Develop and display customer service charters.
• Establish corruption reporting channels and
• Have integrity assurance officers.

The participants were drawn from housing cooperatives from Nairobi and Machakos Counties.

The Commission entered into a partnership framework with the State Department for Cooperatives to mainstream ethics, integrity and to promote best practices of ethics within the cooperatives sector in March 2019.