of a nation to achieve the goals of its
national development agenda, notably
poverty reduction and job creation.
There is overwhelming empirical
evidence showing that corruption
undermines development. It distorts
resource allocation, diverting them to
the personal gain of a few individuals
and thus leading to a skewed distribution
of income and wealth. Corruption
raises the cost of doing business; thus,
discouraging investment, by both local
and foreign investors. With subdued
investment, economic growth, job
creation and poverty reduction are
rendered impossible. Fellow Kenyans,
corruption is to the economy and the
nation at large what cancer is to the
human body. It disgraces and debases a
nation. Therefore, corruption must go.”
That was 2014, and the President was
doing what he is doing today in 2019,
talking! Talking tough! Saying the right
things … Has that translated to any
action? I am not convinced.
Corruption is persistent in Kenya
primarily because institutions such as
the legislature and the judiciary, and
many executive entities have been
both weakened and/or become major
perpetrators of corruption themselves as
well as conduits through which corrupt
The rule of law and adherence to formal
rules are not rigorously observed, patron-
age has become standard practice, the inde-
pendence and professionalism of the public
sector have been eroded, and the average
Kenyan has come to see corruption as an
inevitable facet of life. Moreover, the cul-
ture of impunity has encouraged, or led to,
co-optation of others to participate.
activities flow.
In addition, the rule of law and adherence
to formal rules are not rigorously observed,
patronage has become standard practice,
the independence and professionalism of
the public sector have been eroded, and the
average Kenyan has come to see corruption
as an inevitable facet of life. Moreover, the
culture of impunity has encouraged, or led
to, co-optation of others to participate.
How Do We Successfully
Fight Corruption In Kenya?
All is not lost … yet. Do we have practical
ways of fighting corruption despite the
fact that it has become part of our lives?
Are there countries that have successfully
fought corruption?
According to Transparency International,
modern examples of countries that have
succeeded in reducing corruption are
few and disputed. Botswana, Estonia and
South Korea are often mentioned as good
performers, especially in their regional
context.
In Botswana, the political leadership’s
sustained commitment to fight corruption
played a major role, as well as the country’s
anti-corruption agency. Other factors
include autonomous, merit-based and
relatively efficient judiciary and public
services, as well as transparency and
participation in policy formulation and
public spending.
Estonia’s
good
anti-corruption
performance is largely attributed to its
political leadership in a post-Soviet era
context. They undertook a radical reform
of the judiciary and public administration,
managed a relatively clean and rapid
privatisation
process
and
created
transparency through e-government and
access to information law.
In South Korea, civil service reform and the
introduction of e-government and access
to information proved very successful.
Korean civil society played a major role
in the country’s anti-corruption progress
by exerting pressure on the government.
It initiated many transparency and anti-
corruption legislations and programmes
and acted as a watch-dog.
For me, I think the war against corruption
will be won by employing a myriad of
strategies and techniques. Among them,
the following should be at the top:
Harnessing Political Will
Do we have a strong political will to
fight corruption? I do not think so. We
can’t risk cracking the whip on corrupt
people for fear of losing political mileage
in some strong holds controlled by those
individuals. We need to move past this, if
we will have even the slightest of chances
to reduce corruption in the country. Let’s
see suspension of public officers suspected
to have been involved in corrupt dealings.
Investigations should never be carried out
with suspects in office, period.
Political will was critically important
in curbing corruption in countries such
as Botswana, Estonia and South Korea.
Kenya can only make progress in the fight
against corruption if we have a genuine
political will and not the mere talk we are
witnessing.
Demand From Citizens And
Civil Society
Public demand can be a key driver for
change and public support facilitates the
adoption and implementation of reforms.
This is especially true in the case of
reforms ultimately aiming at deep-seated
behavioural and institutional changes
such as anti-corruption reforms.
In Georgia, the Rose Revolution marked
58 MAL29/19 ISSUE
It is even fashion-
able to be suspect-
ed of corrupt deal-
ings in Kenya! We
have seen enough
corruption
sus-
pects use the press
coverage they re-
ceive at the height
of the suspicion to
launch their polit-
ical careers. And
… we vote them
into high ranking
elective positions,
revealing how our
moral fabric is
completely rotten.
the culmination of public frustration with
rampant corruption. The government that
followed the revolution, succeeding the
highly corrupt Shevardnadze regime,
could rely on public support and use
the momentum for change opened by
the peaceful shift of power to overcome
the resistance of the past and initiate
massive anti-corruption reforms. We had
started this in the early Kibaki days, but
we quickly went back to our old ways.
We need to wake up and say enough is
enough.
Bottom-Up Approaches To
Anti-Corruption: Collective
Action
Collective action refers to actions
undertaken by groups of individuals and/
or organisations towards a collective
purpose or goal. Attempting to stimulate
collective action as an anti-corruption
strategy is a tactic that is enjoying
growing support where individual
change of behaviour is too costly; trust
in others adherence to common norms or
performance is low; integrity is too weak
to resist unethical pressures, or; where
influence for change needs strengthening.
All these are evident in our country and
thus the need for a collective action.
We also need to strengthen our law
enforcement to independently act on
corrupt individuals. As at now, the
independence of these institutions only
exists on paper. I guess it is because
the corruption menace has attacked
the institutions and affected their
independence and/or public perception.
If we can come up with a way to carry out
a massive civic education to stigmatise
corruption, we would deter new corruption
appetite. Right now, young people look at
corruption as a fashionable venture. There
is some sort of “being in fashion” when you
loot public money. We need to stigmatize
corruption. It needs to be looked at with
the hate it deserves.
Corruption is a cancer that is killing
our nation. It has negated almost all the
big steps we have made towards nation
building and economic growth.
As we continue to talk (which may be
good to send a message of perceived fight
against corruption), we need to step up the
real fight and take real steps. We may not
be able to wait for the government to lead
this fight. We may need to go the citizens’
way and make demands. Put pressure on
the government. Make everyone know
that enough is enough.
If this does not happen soon, we will sink
deeper than anyone has ever imagined, and
quality of life will dwindle even further,
we will become the laughing stock to the
world, and no one will be proud to be a
Kenyan anymore, including the thieves
stealing public money day in day out.
George Mbithi is passionate about
Authentic Leadership, Strategic
Communication, Public Engagement
and Organizational Governance.
The
current
Communications
Manager for Population Services
International in Somalia writes
about Leadership and Management
issues. You can commune with him
on this or other matters on mail at:
[email protected].