business. This is a classic example of both
a total disregard for the rule of law and
the environment of bad governance that it
represents.
Bribes are allegedly paid to Kenya’s MPs
from both internal and external sources.
Internally, some of their fellow MPs
(regarded as wealthy) pay these bribes,
while externally the bribes are paid by
businesspersons with the same intended
outcome - in the guise of lobbying the
targeted MPs to debate or vote in a way
that favours the interests of the briber.
As corruption pro-
ceeds unchecked it
becomes more fun-
damentally undem-
ocratic as it infring-
es on the inclusive
nature of democ-
racy by, among
other things, offer-
ing greater access
to goods and ser-
vices to those who
are willing to offer
bribes or otherwise
violate the rules to
acquire them.
According to Rugene (2009), the
politically vulnerable or debt-ridden MPs
are generally regarded as soft targets.
One MP in a previous Parliamentary
corps was said to have bribed colleagues
to the tune of approximately US$1500
each to be elected the Chairperson of a
committee, while another MP admitted
that the normal rate of bribe is equivalent
to US$750–3000 depending on the weight
of the issue. These dealings have made the
Parliament an auction house where the
highest bidder wins crucial battles, even if
by Transparency International Kenya that
not in the interest of Kenyans.
on employment, most councils have faulty
Another secondary factor contributing to and sometimes non-existent employment
the persistence of corruption in Kenya is procedures. Chief Officers and Councillors
the expanding size of the public sector disregard qualifications while recruiting
bureaucracy which has also provided people for employment. The procedures
additional opportunities for unlawful and criteria for promotions are vague and
gain and enrichment at the expense of many times disregarded.
taxpayers.
At the now constitutionally defunct City
Council of Nairobi, for instance, one audit
report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which
was commissioned by the then Council and
funded by the World Bank, found, among
other things, that: There were over 4000
ghost workers on the payroll - constituting
about 35 per cent of the 12,000 strong
workforces with an estimated monthly
wage bill of approximately US$800,000;
46 employees had fake degree certificates;
15 employees on the payroll could not be
identified; 145 employees on the payroll
did not appear on the human resource
records; and 307 other employees were
holding suspicious employment letters.
According to the then Town Clerk, there
was a cartel, running a parallel worker’s
list, which had been receiving the money
and allowances paid to the ghost workers.
Yet, these findings were quite stunning
despite the fact that it had been reported
Corruption, Development,
And Governance In Kenya
By now I am sure you can clearly see
the negative impact of corruption on
governance. By any measure, persistent
corruption and bad governance go together.
In other words, in those countries where
corruption is embedded in their political
economy, such as Kenya, there are low
governance scores and weak governance
institutions, and this translates into
sluggish economic performance and lower
rates of growth as economic efficiency is
impaired.
These economic costs of corruption, in
turn, fall disproportionately on the poor.
Bribes, kickbacks, and illegal payments to
make things happen are all rent-seeking
activities that have the effect of increasing
costs directly to the tax payer or to the
public in general as they are simply added
to the final costs of the goods and services.
Moreover, corruption undermines the
delivery of public services such as health
care and education on which the poor
depend.
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As corruption proceeds unchecked
it
becomes
more
fundamentally
undemocratic as it infringes on the
inclusive nature of democracy by, among
other things, offering greater access to
goods and services to those who are
willing to offer bribes or otherwise violate
the rules to acquire them.
#myBTEC
Warren (2004) observed that ‘corruption
is always a form of duplicitous and
harmful exclusion of those who have a
claim to inclusion in collective decisions
and actions’. The personalisation and
centralisation of the State by the ruling
elite undermines the legitimacy and
credibility of the government and of
responsible and accountable public
servants and institutions.
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Whether by design or not, corruption also
undermines the value system, the norms,
and the very cohesion of society. I find very
true sentiments by Mueller (2008) that
one of the underlying precipitating factors
in Kenya’s post-election violence in 2008
was the ‘deliberately weak institutions,
mostly overridden by a highly personalised
and centralised presidency that could and
did not exercise the autonomy or checks
and balances normally associated with
democracies.’
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We consequently lost democratic values
such as trust and tolerance. They were
tossed away and were replaced by
ethnic violence. That violence, in turn,
destroyed families, neighbourhoods, and
infrastructure, and scared away investors
and tourists - all of which have had a
negative impact on economic progress as
real growth rates slid from 7.1 per cent in
2007 to 1.7 per cent in 2008.
Theft, embezzlement, and fraud by public
officials reduce the availability of funds
for development-related activities. For
instance, in December 2010, the then
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry
of Finance, in testimony before a
parliamentary committee, said that each
year corruption and mismanagement of
public funds rob Kenya of Ksh. 270 billion
(approximately a little more than US$3
billion).
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