Kenya is among the
most corrupt countries
in the world, a report
released by an anti-graft
watchdog shows.
The country has been
ranked number four in the
Global Corruption Barometer
released by Transparency International (TI) yesterday.
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 an- nu al 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 Gen- er al 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.
[nationmedia ]
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 an- nu al 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 Gen- er al 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.
[nationmedia ]