how to curb corruption in kenya essay

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13 ways to combat corruption in Kenya

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Strategies for winning the fight against corruption

Subscribe to africa in focus, ngozi okonjo-iweala ngozi okonjo-iweala nonresident distinguished fellow - global economy and development , africa growth initiative @noiweala.

January 15, 2019

Below is a viewpoint from Chapter 1 of the Foresight Africa 2019 report, which explores six overarching themes on the triumphs of the past years as well as strategies to tackle the remaining obstacles for Africa. Read the full chapter on bolstering good governance .

That corruption and poor governance are key factors holding back Africa’s development are notions deeply embedded in the literature and thought on Africa’s socioeconomic development. What is not so common is discourse and success stories about how to systematically fight this corruption. Though this may sound discouraging, I can tell you, from my experience, that it is indeed possible to fight corruption successfully with the right knowledge, patience, and commitment to transparency.

To fight corruption, we must first understand it. Underlying the various forms of corruption—grand, political, and administrative, which include public resource transfers to private entities, allocation of public resources to political allies, and misuse of public funds—are three important factors. The first is a lack of transparency of critical financial and other information central to economic development, in particular revenues and budgets. Second is the weakness or total absence of institutions, systems, and processes that block leakages. Third is the pervasiveness of impunity—limited political will to hold accountable and punish those found guilty of such corruption.

Between the three, the tougher problem is how to build strong and enduring institutions. Building institutions takes time and does not deliver the quick results that typically attract politicians or donors. But it is essential if Africa is to fight corruption systematically and ensure long-term stability. We are fortunate to now have technology that enables us to build electronic platforms to manage government finances, biometric systems to bring integrity to our personnel and government payment systems, and web-based platforms to provide transparency of government finances. We need to go even further to see how we can deploy blockchain and other emerging technologies to underpin our contract negotiations and procurement systems, a huge source of corruption and leakage in many countries.

Africa needs to focus its anti-corruption fight on long-term, high-return institution building activities, coupled with the justice infrastructure and political will to hold those who transgress accountable.

We should combine these efforts with building strong and independent audit and justice systems, including a well-resourced judiciary and an oversight office to field complaints. We also need to create an environment that enables strong and accountable civil society organizations that provide oversight of government. Such strong and independent institutions have a salutary effect on political will as they exert the necessary pressure on politicians, even at the highest levels, to act. Such initiatives take patience and determination though, since building these institutions, systems, and processes may take a decade or more.

My experience in Nigeria showed that a decade spanning three administrations was necessary to build well-functioning technology platforms for managing the country’s finances. The savings in terms of blocked leakages, amounting to over a billion dollars, made it worthwhile.

We found that supporting institution building with openness and transparency of revenue and budgetary data provides a win that can be implemented quickly. The increasing accessibility of the inter net via mobile phones and various analytic apps makes it easier now more than ever to share with citizens information on revenues and expenditures. Publishing monthly data in national newspapers on local, state, and federal government revenues was unprecedented in Nigeria when we started in 2004, but it helped us gain public support for our initiatives going forward. It laid the basis for much more sophisticated analytics on the budget shared widely via the internet today.

Africa needs to focus its anti-corruption fight on long-term, high-return institution building activities, coupled with the justice infrastructure and political will to hold those who transgress accountable. This process should start by making key government statistics open and transparent, enabling citizens to keep on top of important information and build trust in their governments. Only with these pragmatic approaches can the continent record wins against corruption.

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The impact of corruption on governance: an appraisal of the practice of the rule of law in Kenya

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Vincent Otieno

Douglas Kimemia

abednego kavita

THE 2010 CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER, GOOD GOVERNANCE AND THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION: A CASE STUDY IN KENYA ABSTRACT In August of 2010, Kenya ratified a new Constitution, it has been cited as one of the most robust and progressive documents in the world, this is because of the constitutional provisions on strengthening governance, enhancing democracy and the rule of law, promoting transparency and accountability, the elaborated provisions on separation of power between the organs of government, the comprehensive Bill of Rights and introduction of a devolved system of governance. More importantly, the Constitution provides a strong anchor for the fight against corruption. Chapter six of the constitution is on Leadership and integrity, these provisions lay down the principles upon which the State Officers conduct themselves. State Officers include the President, Deputy President, other members of the Cabinet, Members of Parliament, members of the new County Governments, judges’ magistrates and members of commissions. These provisions are geared towards addressing the deep-seated problem of poor governance and the culture of impunity and corruption that have stifled national development and progress, this has seen the creation of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission replacing the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission which many have termed it as a ‘toothless dog’ for lack of the prosecutorial powers. Kenya’s corruption legacy however dates back to the colonial period, and yet it was not until the 1990’s under donor pressure that established and enacted broad based anti-corruption initiatives and institutions. Since then, Kenya has made numerous efforts since that time to combat corruption with varying degrees of success. It’s notable that the efforts to combat and prevent corruption are constitutionally acknowledged under the 2010 constitution. This research is set to analyse how the 2010 constitutional order and the aspects of constitutionalism; good governance and rule of law, if applied, go a long way to preventing and combating corruption in Kenya.

Brian Mwaniki

The main objective of this dissertation is to prove that the EACC has been ineffective in the fight against corruption due to the absence of prosecutoriaI powers. It analyses the history of corruption in Kenya in order to demonstrate the factors which often fiustrate the fight against conuption. It also scrutinises the legal framework of the EACC in order to establish whether it allows the EACC the authority and independence it needs to reduce corruption and economic crimes in Kenya . The dissertation then analyses the successes of the Sierra Leone Anti-Corruption Commission with regards to prosecution of corruption and proposes recommendations that the EACC should adopt in order to enhance the fight against corruption. This dissertation shall be limited to corruption offences that have occurred within the territory of Kenya. Moreover, the dissertation shall only deal with two specific types of corruption, grand corruption and looting. It analyses the prosecution of public officials...

Kofa Fredrick

This paper is premised on the principles of public trust, separation of powers, rule of law and accountability. In a representative democracy it is few individuals given the mandate and responsibility over public affairs which include management and administration of public resources. Authority given to such individuals is a public trust. It is just like any other fiduciary implying they owe a duty to the general public. The public is the master while the leader is the servant. Accountability is an important forum which enables and empowers the public to exercise power and oversight over the government they elect. In Kenya there exists a robust legal framework to govern public governance accountability. The system is also supplemented by institutions which are supposed to implement the law provisions, ensure compliance and take the necessary steps in the case of contraventions. However, despite the jurisprudence corruption is one of the major threats to the stability and economy of Kenya. Kenya is also among the countries with high perception indices as ranked by transparency international. The author refuses the school of thought that morality could be a valid argument in understanding the persistence of corruption. He adopts the positive theory of law which is applies the law as it is and not as it ought to be. Thus, this paper is an inquiry into the written law of Kenya and the institutions concerned with safeguarding accountability in public governance. The study also looks at the international framework on the same. The purpose of doing so is to ascertain the efficacy of the Kenyan system in handling the subject matter. It is also to examine the compliance of the statutes of Kenya to the international law and standards. The study then includes findings and recommendations to reform or applaud the current legal and institutional framework.

Beijing Law Review

Felix Okiri

This study sought to underscore the central role of morals and ethics in reducing judicial corruption. The paper proceeded to study the concepts of integrity and corruption. Subsequently, the paper studied Kenya’s development and current law on integrity, public service and corruption and possible areas for reform. The study found out that despite near-adequate legislations , Kenya’s jurisprudence depicts a state of despair, lack of good will and numerous constraints in the anti-corruption process: many of the cases prosecuted in court have either been terminated by the courts or have not succeeded as a result of lack of political good will and political interference. The paper concluded that corruption is not only a legal issue but also a moral one—that is why major solutions to taming judicial corruption have flopped as a result of the linear approach to offering solutions. The paper found out that in order to offer formidable solutions to corruption in the judiciary, the legislative and policy approaches ought to be structured and conceptualized in a more realistic and feasible manner to that of ordinary obligations and offences. As a central point of interest, premium must be attached to integrity, as a moral concern, in order to offer sustainable solution to corruption in the judiciary.

Jacob Otachi ORINA

The study sought to establish the influence of governance on corruption levels from the perspective of the Public Service in Kenya. One of the study objectives was to: assess the influence of institutional leadership on corruption levels in the Public Service. A review of literature was done anchored on Principal-Agent Theory. The study adopted both the correlational and descriptive research designs. A study population of 265 institutions (as on 2015) provided a target sample size of 157 institutions. The target respondents in the sampled institutions were public officers who had undergone training on the following disciplines: leadership, integrity, values and principles of the public service and management during the study period (2010-2015). These purposely selected respondents were subjected to questionnaire. To augment data from the questionnaires, 23 key informant interviews were conducted targeting senior officers in the public service, non-state actors and experts. Data collected was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics. The overall correlation analysis results showed that there was a significant but negative relationship between institutional leadership and corruption levels as supported by correlation coefficient of-.525. The regression analysis results showed the coefficient of determination R square is .291 and R is .540 at 0.05 level of significance. The coefficient of determination indicates that 29.1% of the variation on corruption level is influenced by institutional leadership. The findings

Lawino Manea

My dissertation is about Powers Of EACC in Combating Corruption in Kenya vis a vis other African Countries where by i have done a comparison of Kenya's level of corruption with other African countries. Hence my conclusion is that Kenya has got a lot to learn from these other countries.

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Understanding the economic cost of corruption in Kenya

Associate professor, University of the Witwatersrand

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Odongo Kodongo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Kenya is perceived as one of the world’s most corrupt countries. It ranked 143 out of 180 countries on Transparency International’s 2017 corruption perception index. The only African countries that scored worse – among them Somalia, South Sudan, Libya, Eritrea, Burundi, and Zimbabwe – were either politically unstable or in conflict.

This poor showing shouldn’t come as a surprise. Kenya has been plagued by a long list of corruption scandals. One of the more infamous was the Goldenberg heist which occurred in the 1990s during then President Daniel Moi’s tenure. The government was found to have subsidised exports of gold far beyond standard arrangements by paying a company called Goldenberg International 35% more in Kenyan shillings than their foreign currency earnings.

More recently, in 2014 millions of dollars were misappropriated from funds that were secured by the government through a Eurobond, which is an international loan that was secured from foreign investors. A second Eurobond was secured in 2018 and questions have been raised here as well.

Yet, the looting of public coffers is more commonly reported in recent times and the amounts involved are growing. During May and June 2018, reports about grand corruption have dominated Kenyan news. This haemorrhaging of public funds will do enormous damage to the country’s already struggling economy.

The scourge of corruption in Kenya must be urgently addressed otherwise it could be bring the economy to its knees. As things stand, Kenya is already struggling to pay its debts .

The economic cost of corruption

The role of human capital on economic growth has long been established . So when human capital takes a hit the impact is also felt on economic development and growth.

Let’s take Kenya’s National Youth Service as an example of a public organisation where corruption is believed to be rife. In 2015, approximately USD$17 million was stolen from its coffers by a network of companies that supplied goods and service at inflated prices.

And this year billions of shillings earmarked for the service were embezzled by a shadowy network of dubious service providers.

This money was all earmarked for youth vocational training. The theft not only jeopardises the country’s short-term skills provision objectives: it also portends irredeemable long-term opportunity costs.

Corruption compromises people’s futures and their development. It also costs a fortune. Rampant corruption will drain any economy of the resources needed for projects like infrastructure development.

To illustrate, let’s take a look at the misuse of funds from the Kenya government’s 2014 Eurobond, which was believed to be Africa’s largest such issuance at the time.

Reports indicate that some of the money may not have been deposited into the national Treasury . In economic parlance, this would qualify as an illicit financial “outflow”: an illegal cross-border movement of money or capital. The illegal transfer of funds out of African countries is a recognised constraint on the continent’s economic development because it denies local populations the use of that money for national development.

The Global Financial Integrity report estimates that from 2005 to 2014 Africa lost between USD$36 billion and USD$69 billion in illicit financial flows. This represents about 74% of all financing required (approximately USD$93 billion per year) to develop infrastructure to service Africa’s growth needs.

In Kenya’s case, the Eurobond swindle was more than just a missed opportunity to expand the country’s inadequate and dilapidated infrastructure. It also led to a sovereign rating downgrade on the basis of its increasing inability to service ballooning public debt.

A sovereign rating is a measure of a country’s creditworthiness. And a downgrade signals that the country has not optimally invested money borrowed on capital projects, such as infrastructure. Capital projects typically increase national income and better a country’s ability to repay its debts.

Finding solutions

Given these observations, what measures can Kenya take to stem the debilitating theft of public resources?

First, a national ethos that inculcates the value of work as the only means to wealth accumulation must be built. A possible way of achieving this is for education policy makers to emphasise social ethics as a compulsory subject right from primary school all the way up to the university.

Second, Kenya’s legal system must make corruption expensive and unattractive for perpetrators by the imposition of stiff fines, and mandatory jail sentences. Another step in the right direction would be to grant both the auditor general and the ethics and anti-corruption commission prosecutorial powers.

Third, the law could be reviewed to ensure that those convicted of economic crimes suffer lasting embarrassment and the greatest possible financial loss. To achieve this, all the proceeds from corruption must be repossessed by the state and channelled back to public use. Convicts would then be barred from holding public office or doing business for several years after their release.

Fourth, strict standards of ethical conduct could be imposed for anyone seeking public office. This would entail full disclosure on the sources of campaign funds, public declarations of wealth and lifestyle audits, and enforcement of voter bribery legislation.

Fifth, the national fight against poverty, ignorance and disease must be intensified to improve quality of life, and empower citizens to perform their civic duties, such as the choice of legislative representatives, in a more meaningful way.

Finally, it would be worthwhile for the national public prosecutor to sign treaties with “tax haven” countries to block or repatriate illicit financial outflows from Kenya.

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• Governance in Africa
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University Module Series: Anti-Corruption

Module 10: citizen participation in anti-corruption efforts.

  This module is a resource for lecturers  

Citizen participation is not a new concept, although it has gained traction in the past few decades. As stressed by the National Democratic Institute (a United States-based CSO), citizens have "the right to participate in decisions that affect public welfare" and such "participation is an instrumental driver of democratic and socio-economic change, and a fundamental way to empower citizens". Citizen participation has also been described as "a process which provides private individuals an opportunity to influence public decisions and has long been a component of the democratic decision-making process" (Cogan and Sharpe, 1986, p. 283). Citizen participation is classified as direct or indirect, with direct citizen participation being regarded as "the process by which members of a society share power with public officials in making substantive decisions related to the community" (Roberts, 2008, p. 5). There are even international treaties that highlight the importance of citizen participation, such as the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.

The discourse on citizen participation has traditionally focused on participation in democratic decision-making, and there are different ways in which citizen participation is operationalized in democratic processes. This can be through bottom-up measures, such as voting, grass-roots organization and participation, or through top-down mechanisms spurred by organizations such as the Open Government Partnership (discussed in Module 4 of the E4J University Module Series on Anti-Corruption). Innes and Booher (2004) have identified five grounds for upholding citizen participation in public decision-making: 1) to include public preferences in decision-making; 2) to improve decisions by incorporating citizens' local knowledge; 3) to promote fairness and justice, and hear marginalized voices; 4) to legitimize public decisions; and 5) to fulfil the requirements of the law.

Citizen participation in relation to anti-corruption efforts encompasses dynamics and approaches that may differ from citizen participation in other public processes, given that the State may not always provide citizens the same access to space and information in relation to fighting corruption. Corruption bypasses democratic mechanisms to the extent that Mark Warren (2004) has defined corruption as a violation of democratic inclusion. Corruption bypasses the laws and rules that were democratically established and excludes those who do not participate in corrupt exchanges (e.g. services that are meant to be public are allocated to those who bribe or on the basis of clientelism). For this reason, the role of citizens is better understood in terms of social accountability, where the citizens oppose corruption by keeping it in check, critically assessing the conduct and decisions of office holders, reporting corruption misdoings and crimes, and asking for appropriate countermeasures.

Concrete ways in which individual citizens may contribute to the fight against corruption include reporting on corruption to the authority or through the media, and supporting training programmes and sensitization campaigns that aim to create a culture of integrity and zero tolerance for corruption. Sometimes even refusing to participate in corrupt practices is an important act of resistance. It is worthwhile dedicating a few lines to the issue of reporting on corruption, as this is one important avenue through which individual citizens can participate in anti-corruption efforts. As technology has advanced, new methods of citizen reporting have become available. Most anti-corruption agencies now allow reports to be made online. In many countries, smartphone applications are enabling citizens to easily report incidents of corruption. In 2012, the World Bank released its own Integrity App . This app allows users to make confidential reports of fraud and corruption in World Bank projects. It also provides links to the outcomes of investigations. Another approach to reporting corruption outside official channels is through the use of crowdsourcing and social media. In India, for example, Swati and Ramesh Ramanathan created the online platform called " I Paid a Bribe " to expose everyday corruption by allowing people to post their stories anonymously (Strom, 2012). The website has not only served to document corruption, but also to increase awareness among the public. Another example is Digiwhist , a web portal and mobile app technology launched in Europe for the "systematic collection, structuring, analysis, and broad dissemination of information on public procurement and on mechanisms that increase accountability of public officials in all EU and some neighbouring countries". Using the transparency and public accountability of open access, Digiwhist focuses on assessing fiscal transparency, risk assessment and impact of good governance policies.  

In many countries around the world, there is a concrete risk of the normalization of corruption and the decline of public criticism of manifestations of corruption. In an ironic twist, corruption ends up being considered a necessary evil or even a shortcut to access some important goods. In such contexts, the critical attitude of citizens toward corruption is weakened or altogether lost. In other cases, high levels of corruption, citizen frustration with public sector corruption and poor governance (which often corresponds to high levels of corruption) may lead to citizen apathy, a lack of civic engagement and a lack of trust in the political and democratic process. Apathy and indifference are dangerous because where citizens fail to hold public officials accountable, corruption spreads even further, together with impunity for corrupt conduct (Olsson, 2014).

Citizen apathy or a lack of civic engagement may be addressed by empowering citizens and by introducing innovative approaches to citizen participation (McCormack and Doran, 2014). For example, the NGO Transparency International launched an anti-corruption tool called the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC) aimed at enhancing awareness of corruption and its negative consequences, and at facilitating the reporting of corruption. It started with three initial ALACs in Romania, North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and later established more than 60 centres on all continents. These centres provide victims and witnesses of corruption with practical assistance to pursue complaints and address their grievances. Through providing this support, the centres make it possible for citizens to denounce corruption and participate in anti-corruption efforts.

It is crucial that in all countries, citizens are able to recognize corruption and are empowered to participate, so as to avoid the consequences of unabated corruption, such as deep inequalities (Uslaner, 2008), increased levels of private dishonesty (Gachter and Schulz, 2016), the demoralization of the public (Ariely and Uslaner, 2017), instability and even violent extremism (Chayes, 2015). For a further discussion of the adverse effects of corruption, see Module 1 of the E4J University Module Series on Anti-Corruption.

Where citizens and public officials pursue, use and exchange wealth and power in the absence of appropriate accountability mechanisms, it is common to witness the establishment of what Michael Johnston (2005) called the syndromes of corruption: influence markets, elite cartels, oligarchs and clans, and official moguls. For a further discussion of these syndromes, see Module 2 of the E4J University Module Series on Anti-Corruption.

One should be aware, however, of the possible instrumentalization of citizens' anti-corruption attitudes. Transparency International observers remarked, for example, that corruption is an important element of populist rhetoric. Populist leaders tend to use public outrage for corrupt behaviour to punish political adversaries. Populist movements present themselves as an anti-corruption force drawing on the idea that corrupt elites work against the interest of the people. In many cases, however, such movements are not accompanied by an actual anti-corruption strategy and even facilitate new forms of corruption (Transparency International, 2019). For a further discussion on this topic, see Module 1 of the E4J University Module Series on Anti-Corruption. 

Next:  The role, risks and challenges of CSOs fighting corruption  

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Here are 10 ways to fight corruption

Robert hunja.

4. It’s not 1999: Use the power of technology to build dynamic and continuous exchanges between key stakeholders: government, citizens, business, civil society groups, media, academia etc.   5. Deliver the goods: Invest in institutions and policy – sustainable improvement in how a government delivers services is only possible if the people in these institutions endorse sensible rules and practices that allow for change while making the best use of tested traditions and legacies – imported models often do not work.   6. Get incentives right: Align anti-corruption measures with market, behavioral, and social forces. Adopting integrity standards is a smart business decision, especially for companies interested in doing business with the World Bank Group and other development partners.   7. Sanctions matter:  Punishing corruption is a vital component of any effective anti-corruption effort.   8. Act globally and locally:  Keep citizens engaged on corruption at local, national, international and global levels – in line with the scale and scope of corruption. Make use of the architecture that has been developed and the platforms that exist for engagement.   9. Build capacity for those who need it most: Countries that  suffer from chronic fragility, conflict and violence– are often the ones that have the fewest internal resources to combat corruption. Identify ways to leverage international resources to support and sustain good governance.   10. Learn by doing: Any good  strategy must be continually monitored  and evaluated to make sure it can be easily adapted as  situations on the ground change. What are other ways we could fight corruption? Tell us in the comments. 

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