This archive report was first published on 4 September 2019.
September 4, 2019, marked a significant turning point in the life of former Auditor General Edward Ouko. The government withdrew all state security assigned to him after he left office, leaving him vulnerable to potential threats.
According to Ouko, his diligent work and uncompromising nature during his tenure as Auditor General had ruffled the feathers of powerful individuals, some of whom were brought down by his audit reports that exposed massive looting and corruption in their offices.
”Anyone who had an ill motive would never have manifested it during my tenure because they know I have security but when you leave without a clear post-service arrangements…it’s the most insecure time am most concerned about after the office,” Ouko said in an interview with Citizen TV’s Hussein Mohammed.
Ouko has been receiving death threats for a while now, but he is more concerned about the safety of his family. “That never worried me, in fact it worried my family more than myself… For family, they take it with a bit more seriousness,” he noted.
He also emphasized the need for the government to fuse the Auditor General’s office with relevant investigative authorities to effectively fight corruption. “There is no need for another legislative system, there is need for synchronization of all the systems; the EACC, DCI, EACC and even Assets Recovery….that the work of the Auditor General somehow feeds into their work and as a reason of the joint work reasons to prosecution,” he said.
