A strong undercurrent driving the unprecedented anti-tax protests in Kenya is outrage over the theft of public funds, coupled with the extravagant lifestyles of civil servants.
There is widespread frustration that President William Ruto has also failed to deliver on his campaign promises to tackle corruption. He has even been given a new nickname: “Zakayo”, a reference to the corrupt Biblical Zaccheus, the chief tax collector of Jericho. Gedion Onyango gives insight into the extent of corruption in Kenya and what is needed to curb it.
How widespread is corruption in the Kenyan public sector?
Corruption is a widespread problem in Kenya and has become synonymous with politics and public services since independence in the 1960s.
Corruption has become part of the way public institutions operate and the government is full of corrupt individuals. It occurs at every level 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 delivery 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 hinders the country’s economic development by increasing debt and limiting government performance.
In 2016, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission stated that Kenya loses approximately US$6 billion annually to corruption.
My research over the years has focused on kickbacks, bribery and the institutionalisation of bureaucratic corruption in the Kenyan public sector. It provides evidence of the reality of corruption in Kenya and its impact on ordinary citizens. I also look at solutions to corruption, such as whistleblowing, and the need for whistleblower protection.
Through my work I have discovered that the system is layered with corrupt practices. Three out of four Kenyans have participated in or witnessed police corruption. This means that most Kenyans are, directly or indirectly, affected by corruption.
Data from the Afrobarometer research institute shows that most Kenyans (51.6%) believe that some government officials are corrupt. This is higher than the average of 47.4% across the African countries surveyed. In light of the current unrest, it is worth noting that 44.5% of Kenyans consider tax officials to be corrupt.
Corruption also seems to be getting worse. The recent National Ethics and Corruption Survey 2022 shows a worrying trend of increasing bribery in accessing public services. The percentage of people who reported paying 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.
Matters became even worse after the rollout of the new national government system in 2010 – 47 provinces were created as part of a decentralization process. The provincial system transferred political power and resources to local levels, but there were weak control and oversight systems, extensive protections, and loose citizen involvement.
There is an urgent need for political will to address corruption and its root causes: the absence of the rule of law and the political irresponsibility of both leaders and citizens.
What has been done against corruption in the Kenyan public sector?
Kenya has tried to tackle 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. The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission was introduced, along with other regulatory institutions.
In 2018, a milestone was reached when Kenya created the National Ethics and Anti-Corruption Policy. It has no prosecutorial powers but performs well in asset recovery and investigations, and delivers positive results.
Whistleblower legislation is in the making. 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 protect people who play a crucial role in the fight against 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 complex, murky bureaucratic processes. This has led to ‘state capture’, where corruption is entrenched in the public sector and used to retain political power and build wealth.
As a result, efforts to improve public accountability are often undermined and manipulated to serve the interests of political elites, to the detriment of the public. This has allowed corrupt systems to perpetuate themselves at all levels of authority.
Weak citizen oversight and extensive ethnic politics have made the public sector a hotbed of corruption.
The result is a highly non-meritocratic system, an ethnically based public service delivery and a politicized, dysfunctional public sector.
History has shown that breaking such a system requires a political miracle such as a revolution or a very deliberate political leadership that places the citizenry at the center of governance.
What has to happen?
To effectively tackle corruption in Kenya, it is essential to adopt a more comprehensive and radical approach that focuses on the governance and political conditions that enable corruption.
The current political leadership, like its predecessors, has shown a lack of commitment to implementing existing policies.
Implanting a culture of the rule of law can only happen through popular public disobedience, as we are currently seeing through the Generation Z demonstrations. This will reassert citizen agency and voice in political affairs.
In addition, Kenyans must take action against the widespread culture of corruption in government at all levels. Citizen consciousness (active citizenship and demand for legal rights) is necessary to restore the proper functioning of supervisory institutions and important government bodies.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent nonprofit organization providing facts and trusted 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 ESRC.
