Kenya drops six places in TI global corruption ranking
What you need to know:
The 2016 Corruption Perception Index released by the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International shows that Kenya is ranked at position 145 out of 176 countries.
Also ranked at position 145 alongside Kenya are Bangladesh, Cameroon, The Gambia, Madagascar and Nicaragua.
It means Kenya has dropped six places from its previous ranking at position 139 in the 2015 index.
Kenya has dropped six places in the latest global corruption ranking.
The 2016 Corruption Perception Index released by the global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International shows that Kenya is ranked at position 145 out of 176 countries.
The watchdog uses data from institutions including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and business school IMD to compile the perceptions of the scale of public sector corruption.
The score runs from zero, which is highly corrupt, to 100, which is very clean.
Also ranked at position 145 alongside Kenya are Bangladesh, Cameroon, The Gambia, Madagascar and Nicaragua.
It means Kenya has dropped six places from its previous ranking at position 139 in the 2015 index.
Last year, TI had blamed Kenya’s continued dismal performance on the incompetence and ineffectiveness of anti-corruption agencies, saying that the failure to punish individuals implicated in graft had been a major stumbling block.
LONG WAY TO GO
“The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the Department of Public Prosecution and the Judiciary all bear collective responsibility for high corruption levels in the country," said TI Kenya Executive Director Samuel Kimeu said at the time.
"These three departments are responsible for investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating corruption cases and they have failed to deliver.”
In its analysis of the latest ranking, TI states that Kenya has a long way to go in so far as fighting corruption is concerned.
“Some other large African countries have failed to improve their scores on the index. These include South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania and Kenya. South African President Jacob Zuma was in court and in the media for corruption scandals,” it states.
“Kenya – despite the adoption of a few anti-corruption measures including passing a law on the right to information (Access to Information Act 2016) – has a long way to go. President Uhuru expressed frustration that all his anti-corruption efforts were not yielding much. He may need new strategies as Kenyan citizens go to the polls in 2017,” it adds.
TOP SCORERS
Denmark tops the list of the 10 least corrupt countries in the world followed by New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore, Holland, Canada and Germany.
At the tail end of the 2016 list is Somalia, ranked the world’s most corrupt country.
It is followed by South Sudan, North Korea, Syria and Libya, suggesting a direct correlation between corruption and political instability.
TI notes that the elections held across the African continent last year clearly proved that voters are more likely to vote out leaders based on their poor corruption record.
“In countries like Ghana, which is the second worst decliner in the 2016 Corruption Perception Index in the region, the dissatisfaction of citizens with the government’s corruption record was reflected in their voting at the polls,” the report states.
MOST IMPROVED
Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe are the most improved African countries in the 2016 index.
"Both countries held democratic presidential elections in 2016. It is no surprise that the independent electoral observer teams labelled the Cape Verde elections for 2016 as “exemplary”.
This election that saw Jorge Carlos Fonseca re-elected was held in a framework of a continuously improving integrity system, as observed by various African governance reviews, the report notes.
“In São Tomé and Príncipe elections held in July 2016 led to a smooth change of government, which is increasingly a challenge in the African region,” it concludes.
THE LIST : HOW EAC MEMBER STATES FARED
Rank country 2016 score 2015 score
35 Botswana 60 63
38 Cape Verde 59 55
50 Mauritius 54
50 Rwanda 54 54
53 Namibia 52 53
62 Sao Tome 46 42
64 Senegal 45 44
64 South Africa 45 44
70 Ghana 43 47
72 Burkina Faso 42 38
83 Lesotho 39 44
87 Zambia 38 38
90 Liberia 37 37
95 Benin 36 37
101 Gabon 35 34
101 Niger 35 34
108 Côte d´Ivoire 34 32
108 Ethiopia 34 33
116 Mali 32 35
116 Tanzania 32 30
116 Togo 32 32
120 Malawi 31 31
123 Djibouti 30 34
123 Sierra Leone 30 29
136 Nigeria 28 26
142 Guinea 27 25
142 Mozambique 27 31
145 Cameroon 26 27
145 Gambia 26 28
145 Kenya 26 25
145 Madagascar 26 28
151 Uganda 25 25
153 Comoros 24 26
154 Zimbabwe 22 21
156 DRC 21 22
159 Burundi 20 21
159 CAR 20 24
159 Chad 20 22
159 Congo Republic 20 23
164 Angola 18 15
164 Eritrea 18 18
168 Guinea-Bissau 16 17
175 South Sudan 11 15
176 Somalia 10 8