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Kenya tops region’s corruption league


By AGGREY MUTAMBO [email protected]
Saturday, February 13, 2016

Kenya is among the most corrupt countries in the world, a report released by an anti-graft watchdog shows.

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The country has been ranked number four in the Global Corruption Barometer released by Transparency International (TI) on Tuesday.

The top three countries are Sierra Leone, Liberia, Yemen then Kenya follows at number four.

The top three countries have been torn apart by civil wars and Kenya is the only country in the top four that has not experienced civil strife.

The barometer also showed that Kenya is also the most corrupt country in East Africa and the third in Sub-Sahara.

At 70 per cent, it means Kenya is perceived poorest in East Africa in fighting corruption, followed by Uganda (61) and Tanzania (56). The report shows that people bribed their way in eight key sectors of public service but the police, lands department, Parliament, education system and the Judiciary led this poor grade.

On a scale of 1 to 5, where one indicated “not all corrupt” while five showed “extremely corrupt”, 1,121 Kenyans interviewed nationally perceive the police, Parliament, Judiciary and political parties as most corrupt with scores of between 3.5 and 4.8.

The perception of corruption in the police service and the judiciary remains “unchanged” from previous studies, according to the report. This is despite the fact that the Judiciary under Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has put in place efforts to combat graft by issuing annual accountability reports, opening up channels of communication and increasing pay for judges.

As for the police service which is currently under a new leadership of Inspector General David Kimaiyo, about 60 per cent of respondents told the researchers that they had to pay a bribe to get out of trouble, a fact also identified in previous barometers.

According to TI, respondents complained that they had to part with “petty bribes” whenever they sought help from the lands registry.

Average bribes

“The average bribe paid for land services is more than US$100 (Sh9,842) in Kenya and the average bribe paid to the Judiciary in Uganda is more than US$200 (USh594,137),” the report stated. Other Eastern African countries such as South Sudan and Ethiopia scored below 50.

“In too many countries, the institutions people rely on to fight corruption and other crime are themselves not trusted,” a statement from Transparency International said.

People in 36 countries including Kenya view police as the most corrupt, with at least half of people interviewed saying they had been asked to pay a bribe.



 





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