Global Policy Forum

In a previous article, I offered suggestions, as an interested, but non-partisan outside observer, on the rather technical subject of information and communications policy in Kenya and how minor, largely cost-free changes could help stimulate Kenya's economy.

While information communications technology (ICT) affects many people, its economic impact on individual Kenyans is as yet largely indirect.

By contrast, corruption, especially by public officials, high and low, touches every Kenyan and should be the priority for the new Kenya government, whoever wins the coming election.

From Kitu Kidogo to the inflated cost of medicines, telephone calls, and repairs to pothole-ravaged cars, average Kenyans pay the cost of corruption from their own pockets each and every day. And the chai is not small change: Studies conducted in 2001 on Government expenditures from 1990 to 1997 suggest that Sh475 billion was lost to public coffers during that period as the direct result of corruption and laxity by public officials. That works out to an average of Sh68 billion each year!

Large-scale corruption and waste

Most Kenyans understand all too well how bribery works. Beginning with the Sh20, Sh50 or Sh100 handed at the roadside along with a driver's licence or paid to jump a queue at the emergency room or offered to cover the cost of "copying" an official form, the costs go up quickly when parents apply for birth certificates or seek public school enrollment for their offspring or when intending travellers apply for their first passport.

And obtaining justice is always an expensive proposition, whether at the office of the local chief or in courts of law. While no one can condone such practices, I do understand how petty bribery arises from a tight and unpredictable economy and how minor officials press all the advantages they can out of the positions they happen to hold.

It's wrong and it degrades the fabric of everyday life, but with all the high-stakes corruption going on – call it Kubwa Kidogo – it's hard to focus just on the underpaid traffic policeman.

Large-scale corruption and waste by senior Government officials and the public institutions they manage is enormously damaging to the economy and has become a pernicious cancer weakening the foundations of society.

Official corruption also sets the tone and pattern for all the petty graft mentioned above and has increased the cost of doing business in Kenya, tarnished the image of the country and led to many of Kenya's serious problems with the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and bilateral donors.

To turn the situation around, the next government must institute a policy of zero tolerance to corruption in high places.

Nor is corruption only an internal problem. Each year, the respected, independent non-governmental organisation, Transparency International, based in London and Berlin, surveys businesses and governments worldwide to compile its annual "Corruption Perception Index." In 2002 Kenya ranked as the sixth most corrupt country in the world to conduct business in, in a survey of 102 countries (and was the fourth most corrupt in Africa.)

The report cited corruption and kickbacks paid to Kenya's political elites and their cronies, a view confirmed by the Kenya office of Transparency International in its own recent survey which found that "certain public sector institutions displayed the highest incidences of bribery."

In fact, Kenya's law enforcement institutions – police, Judiciary, prisons – and local authorities, including Nairobi and Mombasa, were cited as six of the 10 worst offenders in Transparency International's 2002 Urban Bribery Index.

Whether it's the procurement of overpriced and poor quality goods and services, the evasion of taxes and customs duties, the submission of false invoices by politically-connected Government contractors (who then have the nerve to collect interest when the false bill is not paid on time), or out-and-out bribery – such corruption remains largely hidden from wider public view.

Destructive ideological agendas

But just like the roadside bribe, the cost of this corruption comes straight out of the pockets of those least able to pay. Corruption aggravates income inequalities in a country where more than 50 per cent of the population already live below the poverty line. It reduces public and private investment, undermines economic growth, acts as a powerful disincentive to productive economic and business activity, and results in huge losses of tax revenues.

Corruption also aids and abets international terrorism and undermines Kenyan national security. Immigration officials who steal and sell Kenyan passports to foreign nationals and who take bribes to issue illegal visas could open the door to persons such as the men who perpetrated the heinous attack on Paradise Hotel on November 28, the destruction of the American Embassy on August 7, 1998, and the bombing of the Norfolk Hotel on December 31, 1980.

When international terrorists know that money and greed are more important to officials than national pride, they are able to use corruption to advance their very destructive political and ideological agendas.

So, how should Kenya tackle its most vexing economic and social problem? Allow me to offer a few very candid suggestions on the subject to the next President. These are all steps which can be taken quickly, with virtually no cost to the public purse.

* He should publicly pledge that any Cabinet member, senior official, civil servant or parastatal head who is indicted or taken to court on corruption charges will be immediately dismissed or, at a minimum, suspended from his or her position. Retaining such officials would tarnish the image of the Government and that of any new President at precisely the moment when Kenya needs to restore domestic and international confidence.

Never again should a minister accused and indicted for embezzling millions in State funds ride to the courthouse in a Government limousine flying his ministerial flag. This type of behavior is an insult to honest and law-abiding citizens and demonstrates a lack of integrity in Government.

* He should introduce in Parliament, as one of the first orders of Government business, a constitutional amendment to establish a new Anti-Corruption Authority with full prosecutorial and investigative authority. Parliament, in turn, should swiftly pass and implement the long-stalled Public Ethics and Anti-Corruption legislation consistent with the new constitutional provisions.

However, as an interim measure and without waiting for legislation or constitutional amendments, the Government should adopt and widely publicise a new code of conduct for civil servants and Cabinet officials. The code of conduct should make it absolutely clear that conflict between a public servant's personal business interests and official responsibilities will not be tolerated.

This means that the provisions of the Ndegwa Commission report, which allows civil servants and politicians to own and operate the businesses that give rise to these conflicts of interest, should be quickly repealed.

And no longer, for example, should a Permanent Secretary responsible for road contracts, housing or any other economic sector contract be able to sit as co-owner or partner in a private or family-run company that routinely bids on, and wins, tenders overseen by his ministry and his office.

This type of behaviour should no longer be acceptable or legal.

* Finally, the next Government should propose and introduce legislation requiring every registered company in Kenya to list by name all of its principal financial shareholders. Shell companies and proxy ownership should not be tolerated; instead the Government should adopt tough rules that mandate full and unambiguous disclosure.

If the next Government undertakes these measures, corruption will not end overnight, but it will no longer be acceptable, and I believe the impact of the government's action will be felt all the way to the roadside encounters we see everyday.

For, if ministers can no longer get away with it, what chance does the poor traffic policemen have?

Mr Carson is the American Ambassador to Kenya

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.