A strong undercurrent driving Kenya’s unprecedented anti-tax protests is outrage at the theft of public resources, coupled with extravagant lifestyles of public servants.
There is widespread frustration that President William Ruto has also failed to fulfill his election promises to combat corruption. He really is got a new nickname — “Zakayo,” a reference to the corrupt biblical Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector of Jericho. Gedion Onyango provides insight into the severity of corruption in Kenya and what is needed to control it.
How widespread is corruption in Kenya’s public sector?
Corruption is deeply rooted in Kenya and has been synonymous with politics and public service since independence in the 1960s.
Corruption has become part of the way public institutions function and the government is full of corrupt people. individuals. It is prevalent at all levels and affects access to essential services such as water, education and healthcare. Bribery, extortion and kickbacks are some of the main forms of corruption in the provision and production of public services.
This has a significant impact on the lives of Kenyans. It drains resources that could otherwise have been invested in essential services that are desperately needed, such as healthcare. It also harms the country’s economic development, increasing debt levels and limiting government performance.
In 2016, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission stated that Kenya lost around US$6 billion to corruption every year.
My research over the years has focused on kickbacks, bribery and the institutionalization of bureaucratic corruption in Kenya’s public sector. He provides evidence the reality of corruption in Kenya and its impact on ordinary citizens. I also look for solutions for corruptionsuch as reporting irregularities, and the need to protect whistleblowers.
Through my work, I discovered that the system is rife with corrupt practices. Three out of four Kenyans participated in or witnessed police corruption. This means that the majority of Kenyans, directly or indirectly, have been affected by corruption.
Data from research institution Afrobarometer show that the majority of Kenyans (51.6%) believe that some public officials are corrupt. This is higher than the average of 47.4% in the African countries studied. In light of the current unrest, it is useful to note that 44.5% of Kenyans consider tax officials to be corrupt.
Corruption also appears to be getting worse. O recent 2022 National Ethics and Corruption Survey reveals a worrying trend of increasing bribery for access to public services. The percentage of people who reported having paid bribes increased from 55.9% in 2021 to 64% in 2022. This includes obtaining business licenses, police protection or even access to water and healthcare.
Things got worse after the implementation of the country’s new government system in 2010 – 47 counties were created as part of a devolution process. The district system transferred political power and resources to local levels, but there were weak monitoring and oversight systems, broad patronage, and weak citizen involvement.
There is an urgent need for political will to tackle corruption and its root causes: the lack of rule of law and political irresponsibility among leaders and citizens.
What has been done about corruption in Kenya’s public sector?
Kenya has made efforts to combat corruption, but there is little political will to enforce these legal measures.
Since 2011, several laws and institutions have been created to support anti-corruption efforts. O Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was introduced, along with other supervisory institutions.
In 2018, a milestone was reached when Kenya created the National Ethics and Anti-Corruption Policy. It does not have prosecutorial power, but it performs well in asset recovery and investigations, producing positive results.
Whistleblowing legislation is in force gas pipeline. This will encourage reporting of corruption, which remains risky for potential whistleblowers in the public sector. If the whistleblower law is passed into law, it will help safeguard people who play a crucial role in fighting corruption.
Why didn’t they work?
The phrase “the fish rots from the head” aptly describes Kenya’s anti-corruption dilemma. Kenya’s political elites engage in corrupt practices to increase their wealth and influence through elaborate and opaque bureaucratic processes. This has led to “state capture”, where corruption has become entrenched in the public sector and is used to maintain political power and build wealth.
As a result, efforts to improve public accountability are often mined and manipulated to serve the interests of political elites, to the detriment of the public. This allowed corrupt systems to take hold at all levels of authority.
Weak citizen oversight and extensive ethnic politics have also turned the public sector into a hotbed of corruption.
The consequence is a highly non-meritocratic system, an ethnically based public service and a politicized and dysfunctional public sector.
History has shown that breaking such a system requires a political miracle like a revolution or very intentional political leadership that puts citizens at the center of governance.
What needs to happen?
To effectively combat corruption in Kenya, it is essential to adopt more comprehensive and radical approaches that target the governance and political conditions that allow it to flourish.
The current political leadership, like its predecessors, has demonstrated a lack of commitment to implementing current policies.
Instilling a culture of rule of law can only happen through popular public disobedience, as we are currently witnessing through demonstrations by Gen Z. This will reaffirm citizens’ agency and voices in political matters.
Furthermore, Kenyans must take action against the widespread culture of corruption within government at all levels. A citizen conscience (active citizenship and legal rights requirement) is necessary to restore the proper functioning of supervisory institutions and key government bodies.
This article was republished from The conversation, an independent, nonprofit news organization that brings you trusted facts and analysis to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: Gedion Onyango, London School of Economics and Political Science
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Gedion Onyango receives funding from the ESRC.
