The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is closely monitoring politicians who have been distributing millions of shillings through public empowerment programs.
The Commission warned that their wealth declarations could expose discrepancies between their known sources of income and the large sums they are giving away.
The anti-graft agency said the increasingly lavish public donations have raised questions about whether some leaders are living beyond their known legitimate income.
There has been an uproar from the opposition, clergy and generally sections of civil society and the public questioning the source of funds that are being donated by politicians across the country.
The anti-graft body Chief Executive Officer Abdi Mohamud said elected leaders will be required to account for the source of their wealth through mandatory wealth declaration forms, allowing investigators to compare their declared assets and income with the amounts they publicly distribute.
“Of course, there are certain parameters on how you acquire assets, especially from public and state officers. Because state officers and public officers are expected to declare their assets every two years. And when we investigate and find out that a particular public officer or state officer has assets which they cannot account for, then we investigate and present that matter in court, for the court to determine whether this person actually acquired these assets outside the legal framework,” said Mr Mohamud.
He was speaking in Kisumu on Tuesday at an event where the commission officially announced commencement of the recovery of grabbed Kisumu Kenya Prisons Service land worth Sh4.3 billion.
Mr Mohamud said the commission had issued an advisory on this on November 12, 2025. It was a notice on submission of declaration of income, assets and liabilities under the Conflict of Interest Act, 2025.
The notice stated that the two-year declaration of income, assets and liabilities for the year 2025 was to be filed between November 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025.
The commission is also likely to seek responses from the politicians involved and examine whether the empowerment drives amount to philanthropy, political mobilization, or potential abuse of public office.
While he maintained that walking with cash is not wrong but the commission will have to tie it to a crime before they are prosecuted.
“Having money as it is, is not an offence. The question is, what is the source of the money, are they proceeds of crime, or are they intended to bribe certain people? You have to connect the money to a crime, otherwise, you can't just say, because someone has money, that it is illegal,” said Mr Mohamud.
Leaders, especially those who are allied to the broad-based government, have been crisscrossing every corner of the country in the name of empowerment programs, where they splurge millions of shillings, more than what they earn in a month.
For instance, there was an empowerment program in Suna East, where the area MP Junet Mohamed donated Sh10 million, carrying the cash in a backpack, leaving residents astonished. President Ruto also contributed Sh10 million.
A Member of Parliament of the National Assembly in Kenya earns a gross monthly salary of Sh725, 502. Including allowances, such as car maintenance (Sh356,525), fixed monthly mileage (Sh366, 000), and airtime (Sh15, 000), an ordinary MP's total take-home pay is approximately Sh1.45 million per month.
This comprehensive compensation package can exceed Sh1.7 million monthly when factoring in additional committee sitting allowances and special duty pay.
The spending does not include the cost of hiring helicopters which ferry them from function to function almost every weekend as well as mobilization where the attendees are also branded with merchandise including t-shirts and party-coloured caps.
Investigators are expected to compare the declarations with the leaders' known remuneration that are already in the public domain as well as any other legitimate sources of income and therefore any unexplained wealth could trigger further investigations.
