Free advice on how to fight Kenya's corruption epidemic
President Uhuru Kenyatta at Muthurwa market in Nairobi on August 19, 2016. PHOTO | PSCU
What you need to know:
Corruption must be fought from the top-down.
With an epidemic such as ours, it is imperative that declarations of wealth are made public.
There must be a price to pay for loss of funds by public officials.
For petty corruption, it is imperative to decrease the discretionary powers of officials, as well as reduce the possible punishments for lesser offences or find alternative sanctions that would not raise the temptation to bribe.
Mr Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent outburst about some salivating while others are eating meat has brought corruption back into the limelight. It was an unfortunate statement made worse by the callous pictures of him and some in his inner circle gorging meat at Nairobi’s Kenyatta Market.
Perhaps, this is the signal that Mr Kenyatta has abandoned his war on corruption, which at any rate was mostly rhetorical. He certainly generated a lot of goodwill when he spoke to Parliament and produced a list of shame, leading many Kenyans to believe, in our amazingly hopeful way, that he was serious.
His defenders will assert that fighting corruption is complex and difficult and that he is doing all he can. I don’t buy that. Actually, fighting corruption is not all that difficult, if there is sufficient political will and steadfast determination coupled with a work ethic.
So here is some advice, for free, on how to fight our corruption epidemic.
First, corruption must be fought from the top-down. The tolerance and impunity around high-level (grand) corruption fuels the lower level bribery that we encounter daily in our interactions with state officials. As long as grand corruption goes unpunished or unsanctioned, then lower level bribery will thrive.
And the top-down approach is not just about the person at the top: it is also about the “inner circles” and BFFs, who enrich themselves – eating meat – at our expense. For “birds of a feather flock together”.
Second, with an epidemic such as ours, it is imperative that declarations of wealth are made public. While the law provides for confidentiality in wealth declarations of public officials, there is absolutely nothing stopping Mr Kenyatta on insisting that his appointees must make their wealth declarations public – assuming that he, too, makes his, and that of his family public. Potential appointees would then have to make a choice to declare publicly and be appointed, or keep their wealth secret and have no public appointment. And this must extend to those numerous advisors appointed without vetting.
PERIODIC AUDITS
These public declarations should then be followed up by periodic lifestyle and forensic audits, in which there is public participation, to ensure that appointees do not lie on their forms and to keep them always on their toes.
Third, there must be a price to pay for loss of funds by public officials. The long silence before defending Ms Ann Waiguru at the height of the National Youth Service scandal is exactly how one must not fight corruption! At times like those, it is crucial to cut the links as fast as possible, including political ties such as not accepting her to be in the same party. In other words, tainted people should not be allowed in the political parties of those who claim they want to fight corruption and wastage. After all, there are many other parties to choose from. Fourth, campaign financing is at the heart of corruption and any one serious about fighting corruption should ensure that there is transparency and accountability on the sources and use of campaign funds. Today, drug dealers, people smugglers, corruption honchos and other crooks are the first to make donations, knowing that that buys them not only impunity, but also a chance to keep eating meat once the elections are done and dusted. Indeed, what would even be better is for serious change candidates to limit how much any one person, family or company can donate to political campaigns.
Lastly, for petty corruption, it is imperative to decrease the discretionary powers of officials, as well as reduce the possible punishments for lesser offences or find alternative sanctions that would not raise the temptation to bribe. For instance, is it not easier to bribe a policeman with Sh300 than pay a fine of Sh3,000 for driving at 56kph in a 50kph zone which may be inadvertent? Moreover, computerising functions could also reduce the need to give “chai” so that one may get services in a government office.
Ultimately, fighting corruption may mean the end of political alliances that, perhaps, were indispensable to getting to power. But the counter to that is the massive public goodwill and new political support that it engenders, which could make up for lost political alliances.
