At times when I wake up and make my way to the office like millions of others Kenyans do every morning I always ask myself, what if Kenya was free of corruption where would I be? Would all these women and men be walking to work? Would we still have this crazy traffic jam that takes up an average of 3 hours, what a waste of time and human resources? Where we are as a country in terms of development, is that the full potential of Kenya or she ought to be way ahead? Corruption is like a cancer that is finishing us slowly but surely.

What really is corruption? How do you define corruption and why is it eating us up in Kenya. I define corruption as an unethical act that one does, knowingly in order to receive a service, get a job, get away with a crime etc. A workmate defines corruption as an act that denies a person their right. Transparency International (TI) has chosen a clear and focused definition of the term: Corruption is operationally defined as the misuse of entrusted power for private gain. TI further differentiates between "according to rule" corruption and "against the rule" corruption. Facilitation payments, where a bribe is paid to receive preferential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law, constitute the former. The latter, on the other hand, is a bribe paid to obtain services the bribe receiver is prohibited from providing.

In the 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index, issued by the anti-corruption organization Transparency International, Kenya ranks 147th out of 180 countries, meaning 146 countries are supposed to be less corrupt than Kenya, and only 33 countries are more corrupt. For comparison, the 180th country was Somalia whereas the 1st was Denmark.

Political corruption in the post-colonial government of Kenya has had a history which spans the era of Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi's KANU governments to Mwai Kibaki's NARC and PNU government.

Jomo Kenyatta was the first president of Kenya after independence in 1963. During colonialism, the European colonizers had stolen fertile lands from Kenyans and especially those who lived on the highlands. After independence Kenyatta did not return those lands to the former owners, but handed it over to members of his own clan and tribe. Kenyatta himself became one of the largest private land owners in the country. To date the land issue remains a big problem in our country.

Daniel arap Moi's presidency saw corruption widespread. In the 1990s, there was the Goldenberg scandal, where smuggled gold was exported out of Kenya in exhange of high govenment subsidies. It's one of the largest corruption scandal to date in Kenya, which involved nearly the entire Moi government. Many officials have been implicated but only a few have been charged with a criminal offense, which some see as an example of the continuing problem of corruption and favoritism. There was also mismanagement of parastatals and government offices.

Mwai Kibaki, the third president was elected in 2002 mainly on the promise to end corruption in Kenya once and for all. There have been some improvements in the country which include a more free press, introduction of free and compulsory primary education but corruption remains a big issue. Some of the key highlights include a flawed election that saw Kibaki coming back into power in 2007 which resulted in riots and death of thousands, a bloated cabinet and the biggest that Kenya has ever had since independence thus more tax payers money is going into maintaining the government as opposed to development matters.

Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission's annual report 1008/09 states that the Commission received 4,335 corruption reports in the financial year 2008/09. Out of the reports in the year under review, 1,270 were within the Commission's mandate and were taken up for action. The rest (3,065 reports) were outside the Commission's mandate and hence were referred to relevant organizations and agencies for appropriate action."Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely," these are the words of a British historian Lord Acton. In this case, the term corruption means the abuse of a public office for personal gain or other illegal or immoral benefit. Political corruption is common in Kenya and that's why with every tender within the different ministries, there is always a story behing it.

Whenever a person accepts a political appointment or wins election to an office, he or she must take an oath to uphold the public trust. Very few politicians successfully reach office without making a few promises along the way. Many of these campaign promises come closer to crossing an ethical line, such as hiring relatives or awarding government contracts to influential contributors.

What about me and you, what forms of corruptions are we involved in? When you’re driving and you make a u-turn where you’re not suppose to and out of nowhere a traffic police is on your neck. What do you do, hand him/her Ksh 1,000 so that you don’t receive a ticket to appear in court. How about when your called from work and your informed your brother has been arrested in connection to this and that. You rush to the police station and talk to the police in charge and agree on a certain amount which you pay and your brother is released and his file goes missing. How about when I insist that my child must enroll in a certain school which he/she failed the interview? I ‘see’ the principal on the side and my child gets an admission letter. Or better still when I agree to have a sexual affair with my boss in order to get a promotion I’ve been longing for or even to secure a job. How about the sexually transmitted grades, oh this is where I sleep with my lecturer in order to receive good grades in school. You go to Kenyatta and please the cue is just too long and so you see a nurse on the side so that she can speed up your name on the waiting list, just like magic? Am sure the list is longer.

All these are forms of corruption yet we do them on a daily basis that they seem normal to us. Political corruption stands out because it involves big amounts of money and people who hold public office but also the little things that me and you do still counts. Corruption has become a way of life for many, as one matatu conductor/tout puts it, it’s our culture. And for me the other form of corruption that is lethal is tribalism corruption. One factor that fuels the problems of corruption in Kenya is tribal loyalty. People in Kenya are first and foremost loyal to their families, then their clan (extended family), then their tribe. Member of the same clan or tribe often ‘help’ each other, even when it involves illegal corruption. Tribal influences have waned over the years, but are still strong.

That brings me back to my what if country. What if Kenya was free of corruption, would you be where you are right now? How different would my estate be? How would our constitution look like? How different would the situation at Mau Forest be? Would we be having internally displaced persons in Kenya? Would we be having a cabinet of 44 members? How am I enabling corruption to continue in Kenya? Just a thought.

Highlights of Corruption in Kenya

The longest-running is the Goldenberg scandal, where the Kenyan government subsidized export of gold, paying exporters in Kenya shillings (sh) 35% over their foreign currency earning. In this case, the gold was smuggled from Congo. The Goldenberg scandal cost Kenya the equivalent of more than 10% of the country's annual GDP.

A Sh360 million helicopter servicing contract in South Africa. Military officers had argued that the contract was too extravagant and servicing the helicopters could be done locally. Kenya Air Force (KAF) went ahead to spend Sh108 million as a down payment for servicing the Puma helicopters, whose tail number is logged as 418 at Denel Aviation, a South African firm.

In 2003, the military was split over plans to buy new Czech fighter jets. The plan to buy the jet fighters would have cost taxpayers Sh12.3 billion.

A Sh4.1 billion Navy ship deal. A Navy project was given to Euromarine, a company associated with Anura Pereira, the tender awarded in a process that has been criticised as irregular. The tender was worth Sh4.1 billion. Military analysts say a similar vessel could have been built for Sh1.8 billion.

Chamanlal Kamanihad been involved in a supply contract, as Kamsons Motors. Kampsons tendered for the supply of Mahindra Jeeps to the Police Department in the mid 1990s for close to Sh1 million (US$13,000) each, at a time when showrooms would have charged customers a sixth of the price. Moreover, the vehicles were being bought for a government department and were therefore imported duty free. Few of the more than 1,000 units that were imported over several years are in service today.

The Kamanis were also involved in a deal to build a CID forensic laboratory. On June 7, 2004 an amount of $4.7 million was wired back. The payment was a refund against the money paid for the Criminal Investigations Department forensic laboratory. Another euro 5.2 million was paid back in respect of the E-cop project, which involved computerisation of the police force and the installation of spy cameras in Nairobi by Infotalent Systems Private Limited.

The Prisons department lost $3 million after contracting Hallmark International, a company associated with Mr Deepak Kamani of Kamsons Motors, for the supply of 30 boilers. Only half of the boilers were delivered – from India and not the United States as had been agreed.

The construction of Nexus, a secret military communication centre in Karen, Nairobi. The Government spent Sh2.6 billion (US$36.9 million) to construct the complex. Three years later, military personnel have not moved into the centre. A phantom company, Nedermar BV Technologies, which is said to have its headquarters in Holland, implemented the secret project situated along Karen South Road. Nedermar is linked to businessman Anura Pereira. However, Pereira has denied this. The tendering process for the Nexus project was circumvented as DoD's Departmental Tender Committee. Funding for the project was made through the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The complex is currently headed by Colonel Philip Kameru. Nexus was first meant to be an ammunition dumpsite before it was turned into a military communication and operations centre. Construction continued without any site visits by either the DoD staff or Ministry of Public Works officials. The Nexus project was implemented during the tenure of General Joseph Kibwana.

In 2005 plans to buy a sophisticated £20 million passport equipment system from France. Here government wanted to replace its passport printing system. The transaction was originally quoted at 6 million euros from François Charles Oberthur of Paris - the world's leading supplier of Visa and MasterCards, but was awarded to a British firm, the Anglo-Leasing and Finance Company Limited, at 30 million euros, who would have sub-contracted the same French firm to do the work. Despite the lack of competitive tendering Anglo Leasing was paid a "commitment fee" of more than £600,000. Anglo Leasing's agent is a Liverpool-based firm, Saagar Associates, owned by a woman whose family has enjoyed close links with senior officials in the Moi regime. Company records show Saagar Associates is owned by Mrs Sudha Ruparell, a 47-year-old Kenyan woman. Mrs Ruparell is the daughter of Chamanlal Kamani, the 72-year-old multimillionaire patriarch of a business family which enjoyed close links with senior officials in the Moi regime. Anglo Leasing made a repayment of euro 956,700 through a telegraphic transfer from Schroeder & Co Bank AG, Switzerland on May 17, 2004.

The local chapter of Transparency International and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), a government body released a report in February, 2006, stating that between January 2003 and September 2004, the National Rainbow Coalition government spent about $12-million on cars that were mostly for the personal use of senior government officials. The vehicles included 57 Mercedes-Benz, as well as Land Cruisers, Mitsubishi Pajeros, Range Rovers, Nissan Terranos and Nissan Patrols. The $12-million substantially exceeded what the government spent over the 2003/04 financial year on controlling malaria -- "the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Kenya", says the report.

In November 2006, the government was accused of failing to act on a banking fraud scam worth $1.5bn involving money laundering and tax evasion, reported by whistle-blowers as early as 2004. Investigators believe sums worth 10% of Kenya's national income are involved. A recent auditor's report says the scale of the operations "threatens the stability of the Kenyan economy".

In November 2006, British Foreign Office minister Kim Howells warned, that corruption in Kenya is increasing the UK's exposure to drug trafficking and terrorism. "People can be bought, right from the person who works at the docks in Mombasa up to the government. (...) This weakness has been recognised by drug-traffickers and probably by terrorists too." Said Howells for the BBC.

On 31 August 2007, The Guardian newspaper featured on its front page a story about more than GBP 1 billion transferred out of Kenya by the family and associates of former Kenyan leader Daniel arap Moi. The Guardian sourced the information from the Wikileaks article The looting of Kenya under President Moi and its analysis of a leaked investigative document ("the Kroll report") prepared for the Kibaki government in 2004 in order to try to recover money stolen during Moi's rule.

On 06-09-2007 parliament passed the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, restricting investigations by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission to offenses committed prior to May 2003, excluding the Goldenberg and Anglo-Leasing scandals and other major cases. The move was condemned by anti-corruption campaigners; Mwalimu Mati, former chief executive of the Transparency International Kenya Chapter, declared that "grand corruption has swallowed the government and parliament that Kenyans elected to fight it in 2002". In response to public outrage generated by the move, President Kibaki announced that he would veto the bill.

In June 2008, the Grand Regency Scandal broke, wherein the Central Bank of Kenya is alleged to have secretly sold a luxury hotel in Nairobi to an unidentified group of Libyan investors for more than 4 billion Kenyan Shillings (approx US $60 million) below the appraised market value. Finance Minister Amos Kimunya negotiated the sale, and was censured in a near-unanimous motion by the Kenyan Parliament, though he vehemently denies the charges. This follows on the heels of the Safaricom IPO, overseen by Kimunya, which has been alternatively praised and questioned for possible corruption in the execution of the sale. Safaricom is the largest mobile phone service provider in Kenya, having operated with a near-government monopoly for many years. The government of Kenya sold its 50% stake in Safaricom in the IPO.

Reference

Wikipedia; the free encyclopedia. (2009).Corruption in Kenya. Retrieved November 13, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wikie/corruption_in_kenya

Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission. (2009).Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission. Retrieved November 13, 2009 from http://www.kacc.go.ke

Aman. (2009).Transparency Palestine. Retrieved November 13, 2009 from http://www.aman-palestine.org/english/corruption