A Bill sponsored by Jubilee Party's nominated Senator, Farhiya Ali Haji, is seeking to make lifestyle audit mandatory for the President, Deputy President, and other state officers.
The Lifestyle Audit Bill (Senate Bill No.36 of 2021) is also aiming at putting in place a legal framework for understanding lifestyle audits and grounds upon which they can be initiated and executed.
The proposed law gives the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission in collaboration with any other necessary entity powers to conduct the audit after which the matter shall be referred to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) for action.
In the Bill, a state officer will be prosecuted if there are reasons to believe that he or she is living beyond the lawfully obtained and reported income earned from the government.
The Bill further states that public officers who are unable to account for their source of income will also be liable for investigation and prosecution by the ODPP.
State officers will be held responsible for the misappropriation of funds within their areas of jurisdiction with those found to have misappropriated funds under their care and trust being charged.
Members of the public will be part of initiating audits on state officers by lodging complaints to the EACC if they have a reason to believe that a person holds an unexplained wealth of a public officer.
The Bill states that where the commission intends to conduct a lifestyle audit, it will apply for a search warrant against the public officer from the High Court with an exception being made if there are reasonable grounds to believe that evidence may be removed or destroyed.
An officer who commits an offense during the conduct of a lifestyle audit by making false or misleading statements knowingly will be liable to conviction and imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine not exceeding five million shillings or to both.
The proposed law also gave a go-ahead for an audit to be carried out on an immediate family member of a public officer if it is established that a property that is a subject of a lifestyle audit is owned by the immediate family member, including joint ownership.
Bungoma Senator, Moses Wetangula, noted that though the Bill will strengthen existing legal structures and institutions to enhance accountability adding that several state officers cannot explain the source of their wealth.
“If you look at our country today, I dare say that over 70 per cent of rich people in this country have worked for or are working in government. None of them can explain their wealth as being a source of their income for working with the government,” he said.
