Kenya can learn a lot from Tanzania about how to fight against corruption

If the Tegeta escrow account corruption scandal that has rocked Tanzania had taken place in Kenya, you can be sure that no minister would have been fired or investigated and certainly, the Attorney General would not have resigned for failing to advise the government on the matter.

By sacking Anna Tibaijuka, the minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development, for failing to observe what he referred to as “public leadership ethics” and by ordering an investigation into the role of other senior officials implicated in the scandal, President Jakaya Kikwete bucked a trend that is pervasive in Kenya and Africa in general.

While there is little doubt that Tanzania can be as corrupt as Kenya, the difference is that donors in that country wield enormous influence over the government. The United States-funded Millennium Challenge initiative has threatened to withhold nearly $700 million in development assistance if Tanzania fails to take concrete steps to tackle corruption.

BROUGHT TO BOOK

Other donors, including the United Kingdom and Japan, have also threatened to stop their aid programmes unless those named in the scandal are brought to book.

Interestingly, Tanzania is the only country in East Africa that meets the Millennium Challenge's eligibility conditions, which include the recipient government’s ability and willingness to tackle corruption.

In Kenya, where donor aid does not comprise a substantial proportion of budgetary assistance and where the government has adopted a “look East” policy, the views of Western donors on issues such as corruption have generally been ignored, particularly since the Mwai Kibaki administration. Donor independence has, ironically, led to more corruption.

The other difference is that, unlike in Kenya, where the ruling elite believes that it is a law unto itself and treats citizens as if they are all idiots, Tanzanians not only demanded an explanation about how the scandal unfolded, they were given a detailed briefing about it by none other than the president.

In Kenya, which has had its fair share of mega corruption scandals, presidents either pretend that there is no scandal, brush it off as irrelevant, or, and only after a public outcry, engage in a mini-reshuffle, only to later reinstate a minister who had previously been asked to “step aside” (in Kenya presidents do not sack ministers).

"CHICKENGATE" SCANDAL

Often it takes a foreign court to prosecute people who have benefited from corruption in Kenya, as has been witnessed in the “Chickengate” scandal in which a UK court has convicted the managers of a British company for corrupt deals with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Kenya National Examinations Council.

The only reason this scandal came to light is that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office is far more efficient than Kenya’s anti-corruption agencies, which have failed to bring any of the big fish involved in corruption to trial.

In fact, it was a UK court that finally nailed Ketan Somaia for fraud. Somaia, if you remember, was implicated in the Goldenberg scandal that wrecked the Kenyan economy in the 1990s. (Perhaps Kenya should outsource its corruption investigations to the Serious Fraud Office.

Then maybe those who were implicated in Anglo Leasing, Goldenberg, and other corruption scandals will finally face justice.)

ONLY SIMILARITY

The only similarity between the Tanzanian scandal and the Kenyan ones is that they involved shady Asian characters who either acted as front or middle men or as masterminds of the deception.

However, Tanzanians are quick to point out that Harbinder Singh Sethi, the owner of Pan African Power Solutions, which has been implicated in the Tegeta scam, is not only of Indian origin, but also a Kenyan citizen.

The most unfortunate thing about the Tanzanian scandal is that a woman who has not only held a senior position in a United Nations organisation, but has also been hailed as a role model for African women, was implicated.

The lesson women can learn from her sacking is that being female does not make one immune to the weaknesses and indiscretions of men. Women in male-dominated work environments often succumb to the worst excesses of their male counterparts. However, they are also held to a higher standard. Therefore, when exposed, they pay a heavier price than men for their failures.

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