SAMS SENSE: Freedom of Corruption

For nearly two decades, the anticorruption body has consistently conducted the National Ethics and Corruption Survey, a pivotal research initiative aimed at gauging the status and perception of corruption within the country. It is now a well established tradition and one of the key deliverables of the EACC.

In the 2022 survey which was finalized in September 2023, EACC Chair Dr. Bishop David Oginde noted that, “the findings contained in the report would serve as valuable guide and would provide strategies for combating and preventing corruption in public service delivery within our nation,” end of quote.

Yet, every year, the situation gets worse. The national average bribe has grown by nearly four times to reach 11,625 shillings in the year 2023. A country so meticulous that we now have statistics about everything wrong with us. The EACC has reported that it will cost you an average of 163 thousand shillings to secure a job in the public sector. An assessment of the services that attract the highest bribe shows that despite paying for the service, you may need to budget for a bribe that could be as high as five times of the cost of the service, at least in securing a Kenyan passport.

In a survey conducted following the 2022 general election, EACC found that a third of the respondents were beneficiaries of a bribe during the campaigns. Never mind that majority of them reported not being influenced in the direction of their vote.

Based on these confessions, it is now a documented fact that political leaders have a special place in voter bribery. It is also a documented fact that a significant number of Kenyan voters are ready and willing to take a bribe even if they won’t be swayed.

Furthermore, these respondents openly acknowledge their lack of trust in the governance framework to effectively combat the pervasive corruption epidemic. This distrust extends across all branches of government—neither the executive, judiciary, nor the legislature inspire confidence. Moreover, Kenyans harbor deep skepticism towards investigative and prosecutorial agencies, doubting their ability to tackle corruption decisively.

It is the futility of the text that is obnoxious. That even surveys are meaningless now. They are mere signposts leading into pitfalls. Telling you nothing but that the pitfall is so assured and almost structured. The futility of how corruption has become an inbuilt survival tactic in Kenya, complete with established figures on how much it can cost you to access services that should rightfully be free, such as obtaining a police abstract for a lost document or reporting a car accident.

In the good old days, corruption had no price list, now we have a catalogue. It's almost as if it's there to help you plan ahead.

The more mature voters will tell you how enthusiastic they were when President Mwai Kibaki took over the reigns of power. How in December 2022 he declared that corruption would cease to be a way of life. How he declared that there would be no sacred cows under his government.

And then every public office became a corruption free zone, at least in signage. The EACC survey would suggest that corruption is free in Kenya, and that the difference is in the amounts, and there are no sacred zones.

Kibaki’s notion of “sacred cows” has since lost its significance. Today, few believe that anyone, regardless of stature, will uphold such declarations.

And so, is it time to revise our expectations? For the trends are clear, that the economy is growing at least statistically; the inflation often times rises and so does the cost of a bribe, as if in keeping up with the inflation. The social cost is out for all to see. From broken systems, stolen marks of quality, illegal businesses that run with a license, lives lost and many at stake

Despite consistent poor rankings of the country in the global corruption index, meaningful change remains elusive. A score of 31 out of 100 should serve as a sobering wake-up call for every public official, prompting a reassessment of the collective destiny desired by every Kenyan.

What would be the sense of carrying out a diagnosis, establish what ails the body, take samples for biopsy and determine the extent of the disease, write a report replete with what should be the prescription and then keep all that information in a file until the next ritual triage and diagnosis without any action?

Without genuine reflection and action, the barrage of corruption surveys, reports, perception indices, and numerous press conferences will not make any sense to those who genuinely seek thoughtful assessment and progress.

And that is my sense tonight.