Have you ever cried in Public or rather during an interview?
Crying has been associated with the weak but as research show, Crying has got a lot of benefits that include reliving pain, enhancing ones mood, releasing toxins and improving vision.
Ethics and Anti-Corruption CEO Nominee Twalib Mbarak yesterday broke down in tears during his vetting at Parliament buildings by the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.
Could it be that the mere thought of the ever increasing corruption scandals in the Country made him cry?
Corruption in Kenya has become a pain in the neck of several Kenyans with the country constantly loosing billions of shillings to rogue Government officials.
The President has in the Past asked the Ethics and Anti-Corruption commission to stop barking like a toothless bull dog and instead get down to business and nab all corruption suspects.
To empower the commission, the President nominated former military intelligence officer Twalib Mbarak to become the Ethics and Anti-Corruption CEO.
Twalib has already set the ground running and has pledged to decisively deal with all corruption cases, whether big or small.
“The view that there is a high office that controls the commission won’t exist in my tenure. But if such calls come from the high office and are likely to compromise my work, I will resign and go home,” Mbarak said.
He broke into tears before the Justice and Legal Affairs committee when he spoke about his 91-year-old mother and the role she played in instilling integrity in him.
Mbarak said his mother was an orphan and was married off at the age of 16. She worked hard to raise him to be morally upright, he said.
The nominee was being vetted by the committee chaired by Baringo North MP William Cheptumo.
“I will not get any orders from anywhere. I will be fair to all citizens,” Mbarak said.
He promised to audit “the high voltage files” that have been stuck with the commission for ages to fast track the cases.
Mbarak said he will vet all EACC staff to restore public confidence in the commission.
“Within a 100 days, we are going to revisit the issue of pending cases because some files have stuck there for years. We are going to look and see that these cases are taken to the DPP for prosecution,” Mbarak said.
He urged MPs to make laws that stipulate the period a case can take before it is determined. Mbarak said some cases take too long to be determined.
“For instance, the cemetery scandal, which started more than seven years ago and was just concluded the other day,” he said.
Mbarak said the commission need more staff to effectively handle graft cases. The EACC currently has 700 employees, including 100 investigators.
There are 2,900 cases currently before the commission. Mbarak said he will propose a legislation to set a threshold of cases the commission can handle at any given time.
“The commission suffers image problem. There is a perception that the EACC is not working, that other state agencies have taken over its roles. This is the image that we are going to restore,” he said.
Will we finally see an end to Corruption in Kenya with Twalib Mbarak at the helm?