Ombudsman to bar public, state officers culpable of misconduct from elections

The Commission on Administrative Justice (CAJ), more commonly known as the Ombudsman, now says all public and state officers who recently resigned to seek various positions in the August general elections ought to be cleared by the commission.

The commission’s chairperson Florence Kajuju disclosed in a statement Saturday that the commission has been scrutinizing files belonging to persons who held public offices and are currently offering themselves for election.

Kajuju says the Ombudsman will soon make public the names of persons who are tainted and are therefore ineligible to hold public office. The work of the commission, she says, will be to ensure the names of those with questionable integrity are not on the ballot.

“The Commission is currently processing reports of persons of interest who are not eligible to hold public office in line with Reg 19, 20 and 21 of the Commission on Administrative Justice Regulations 2011 in promotion of Chapter 6 of the Constitution 2010.” She said

“These persons include those public and state officers who have previously engaged in cases of maladministration and have been cited in the Register kept by the Commission.” She added

And as elections fast approach, Kajuju says all candidates seeking to be cleared by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to vie for any political position must obtain clearance from the Commission on Administrative Justice.

She reiterated that good governance during the electioneering period should be fiercely guarded, citing this as the reason behind the commission’s active role in this year’s elections observation and monitoring.

“The Commission has stepped up the clearance process through digitization and the e-clearance application form is now available on our website: caj.clearance.go.ke.”

“The clearance by the Commission is free of charge to all applicants. Upon completion of the online form, applicants can deliver the forms to any of the Commission’s offices or send it by email,” she stated in her statement.

Accordingly, Kajuju says the Commission had observed rampant cases of maladministration in the previous electioneering periods.

During such periods, she listed some of the cases of maladministration noted by the commission including abuse of office which she says is evidenced by misuse of public resources, for instance, illegal use of government vehicles during campaigns, absconding duty to support aspirants in the campaign trail, victimizing non-loyalist employees, destruction of official records.

Related