Bribery Act? Try political will to fight graft instead

Kenyan anti-corruption activist John Githongo during a past interview in Nairobi on July 31, 2015. PHOTO | SIMON MAINA | AFP

What you need to know:

  • The gazettement of a law criminalising acts of bribery which took effect a week ago and the  swearing in of the new Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chairman marks the latest attempt at tackling the monster.
  • Although the Bribery Act (2016) targets even the private sector by exposing business executives to a Sh5 million fine and 10-year embargo on their firms for engaging in the vice, experts believe it will take more than legislation to deal with the menace.

Kenya’s latest legal attempt at punishing bribery has received criticism from anti-corruption crusaders and analysts who contend it will take more of political will than laws to fight corruption in the country.

The gazettement of a law criminalising acts of bribery which took effect a week ago and the  swearing in of the new Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission chairman marks the latest attempt at tackling the monster.

Although the Bribery Act (2016) targets even the private sector by exposing business executives to a Sh5 million fine and 10-year embargo on their firms for engaging in the vice, experts believe it will take more than legislation to deal with the menace.

Anti-corruption crusader John Githongo told Sunday Nation that the passage of the legislation may not achieve much as the country has had several such moves with little yield in dealing with corruption.

“We have been passing pieces of anti-corruption legislation for decades and the vice worsens. Political will, not the legislative framework, is the problem,” Mr Githongo wrote in a text message response.

President Uhuru Kenyatta assented to the anti-bribery law on December 23, last year and designated January 13, 2017 as the commencement date.

The new law, modelled along the UK’s Bribery Act, seeks to punish private sector bribery, especially in dealings with government and public agencies by making it a criminal offence to abet, give, or receive bribes.

It also requires all public or private entities to put in place procedures appropriate to their sizes and the scale and to the nature of its operation, for the prevention of bribery and corruption. EACC is expected to assist the institutions develop such frameworks. 

Top officials of the organisations will be liable should their firms be found not to have put in place these measures.

State officers will be required to report bribery incidents to the EACC within 24 hours failure to which they will have committed the offence and shall be liable on conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years, or to a fine not exceeding five million shillings, or both.

Nairobi based economic analyst Robert Shaw believes the real challenge in fighting bribery in Kenya will need strong institutions instead of more legislations.

“We have always had enough legislations to prosecute people caught in these vices since 1950s and lack of legal base cannot be an excuse. Watchdog institutions need to be given enough independence and capacity to deliver on this front and added to a political will with a holistic effort from the executive to fight these vices is what we need. Isn’t it amazing that most people previously caught in some of these cases end up in political offices, who clears them?” Mr Shaw posed.