New holders of public officers need to declare their wealth within 30 days from the date of joining service!
Kenya is going through a transition with new office bearers taking up public offices as a result of the just concluded August 2022 general elections. Most of them especially those coming from the private sector may not be familiar with government practice.
Kenya, having ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and consequently enacted the Public Officer Ethics Act, requires all public officers and their spouses to declare their wealth.
The purpose of wealth declaration is to promote accountability in the public sector by ensuring that public officials, their spouses, and dependents do not embezzle and defraud public coffers in a bid to acquire wealth for themselves.
The Public Service Commission has guidelines on the declaration of Income, Assets, and Liabilities on 29th May 2009.
They provide for these three types of declarations:
a) Initial declaration made by a public officer within thirty days of
joining the service.
b) Every two-year declaration made by a public officer every two
years while in the service.
c) Final declaration made by a public officer within thirty days of
leaving the service.
The consequence of not declaring wealth by public officer or giving misleading declarations may earn one prosecution in a court of law or subject to disciplinary proceedings by an authorized officer.
After the signing of wealth declaration forms, the same are submitted to your specified authorized officer. The details of the form cannot be divulged to any other persons unless within the permissible limits of the law.
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