The state has recovered stolen assets worth $20m from corruption cases, says Kenya’s Public Prosecutor Noordin Haji.
However that is only 1% of an estimated $2bn worth of public money involved in high profile corruption cases.
In recent years high profile politicians and public servants have been arrested and prosecuted for corruption, including the capital’s, Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko, but none has been convicted yet.
The Governor who was barred from office after his arrest in December 2019, has denied charges of conspiracy to commit corruption, conflict of interest, failure to comply with procurement laws, unlawful acquisition of public property and laundering.
Corruption is a huge drag on the economy and investor confidence in East Africa’s business hub.
(Photo by Bryan Jaybee/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Since taking office in 2013, Kenyatta has repeatedly pledged to tackle graft and over the past year the country’s top prosecutor has charged dozens of officials, including the then sitting finance minister Henry Rotich.
Mr Haji spoke to the BBC’s Ferdinand Omondi in Nairobi about his hopes of securing a high-status conviction this year – a challenge put to them publicly by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday during a state speech he gave at his Mombasa residence, Kenya’s coastal region.
