Kenya ranks low

Transparency International's( T.I) latest report on global corruption places Kenya at number 144 - ranking it among the most corrupt nations of the world. The report also placed Kenya as the most corrupt in East Africa . Uganda and Tanzania were rated at 110th and 98th respectively.

Further a field, Zimbabwe was rated at 137, seven slots higher than Kenya. Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda and Burundi were also ranked higher with Botswana , at 37, being the least corrupt country in Africa .

Kenya was slightly above Nigeria at 146, Pakistan (147), Sierra Leone (148), Cote d'Ivore (153), the Democratic Republic of Congo (158), Sudan (159) and Iraq (161). Haiti was ranked as the most corrupt country in the world at 163.

Finland had the least incidents of bribery while the US , Cuba , Brazil , Israel , Tunisia and the Seychelles were among nations whose level of corruption was getting worse.

Cost of graft on Kenya

On Kenya, the report criticised the institutions and laws set up to fight corruption by the Narc administration. T.I - Kenya's chairperson Evelyn Mungai yesterday said that the facilitators of corruption were still in business, making the war against the crime difficult.

"Research findings show that bribery costs Kenyans about $1 billion each year. Translated, the money is a vast Sh85 billion annually," she said. The TI's local chapter put the real figure at $1.13 billion while the exchange rate was Sh75 to the dollar.

"If we have working legislative systems to contain bribery and corruption in general, this amount of money could have been used to fund other anti-poverty programmes like housing, roads and public works," she said.

The report shows that efforts by the Government to reduce corruption have only improved by 0.1, placing Kenyan's total points at 2.2 from last year's 2.1.President Kibaki rode to power on the pledge that his Government would observe zero tolerance to corruption but the ratings show no improvements.

The ratings are based on the level of perceptions of cases of corruption by business people and country analysts. Countries are ranked on a scale of one to 10, with the least corrupt scoring 10 and the most corrupt scoring 1 or less.

Institutions to curb against graft

Among the institutions set up to fight corruption are the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) headed by Mr Justice (rtd) Aaron Ringera and the National Anti-Corruption Council Steering Committee lead by the Rev Mutava Musyimi. Others include the Cabinet sub-committee on corruption, the Central Bank of Kenya Fraud Unit, the CID, the Efficiency Monitoring Unit (EMU), the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Parliamentary Investments Committee (PIC).The Government spends billions of public funds to finance the operations of these organisations.

KACC underpressure to deliver

On legislation, Parliament passed the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act and the Public Officer Ethics Act which stipulated tough conditions for civil servants including yearly declarations of wealth. But these efforts, TI said, need to be given a fresh push.

President Kibaki has reiterated his policy of zero tolerance for corruption and urged institutions created to fight graft to perform their duties. But the latest move by KACC to have Cabinet ministers, MPs and prominent people linked to the Anglo Leasing scandal taken to court was thwarted by Attorney-General Amos Wako who said that the evidence in the files could not sustain charges.

Mr Wako returned the files to Mr Justice Ringera's team, triggering a war of words with Mr Justice Ringera.The billions that Kenyans pay in bribery weigh heavily against the country's programmes of elevating poverty, improving infrastructure, providing adequate medical care and reducing the level if illiteracy.

What Ksh 85 billion could do for Kenya

The Sh85 billion lost to graft is enough to tarmack afresh more than 1,000 kilometres of the Mombasa/Malaba highway. Contractors have placed the cost of tarmacking a kilometre at between Sh40 million and Sh60 million.

The billions could also assure pupils in primary schools 10 years of free education. According to the ministry of Education's budget passed recently, Sh9 billion will be spent on the Free Primary Education programmed this financial year.

The Sh83 billion is enough to pay 10,119 professors in public universities for a year or 35,416 lecturers according to the salary scales that were being demanded by the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu). The professors were demanding Sh700,000 per month and while the lowest paid lecturers wanted Sh200,000.

Were the money to be spent on health, it could be enough fund the Ministry of Health's annual budget of Sh33.3 billion for more than two years.

In its report, TI blamed cartels behind the endemic corruption and political leaders who aid them in looting State resources. It cited the multi-billion Anglo Leasing-type scandals in which public funds were lost through fraudulent contracts using shadowy, off-shore companies and banks.

It means that the corrupt know there will be a banker, an accountant, lawyer or other specialists ready to help them generate, move or store their illicit income," TI-Kenya observes in its remarks on Kenya .

On Uganda , the report said that the country has always scored higher in corruption perception indices while Tanzania 's cores showed the highest improvement.

" Kenya is not doing enough to improve the perception of experts that it is a country making genuine and productive efforts to reduce the perceived levels of corruption. The Government and all Kenyans must work hard," the report concluded.

Source Daily Nation

Bernard Namunane
Nairobi