Francis Ayieko
6 July 2009
Nairobi — Widespread corruption in key public institutions in East Africa could soon cripple trade and development in the region, a new report has warned.
The bad news was delivered last week by the Kenya chapter of Transparency International as it launched the findings of the inaugural East African Bribery Index 2009 in Nairobi.
Trade and development are major pillars in the integration process of the East African Community.
According to the survey, high levels of corruption in the police, the Judiciary, Immigration departments, local authorities, power utility companies, Water ministries and hospitals, have increased the cost of doing business in the region and made it less attractive to investors.
This has consequently reduced the region's ability to attract and retain foreign domestic investments.
The survey, conducted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania has singled out the Kenya Police as the most corrupt institution in East Africa.
Conducted between April 16 and May 15, the survey indicates that Kenya has the highest incidence of corruption at 45 per cent while the level of corruption in Uganda is 34 per cent. Tanzania is the least corrupt country in East Africa with a corruption incidence of 17.8 per cent.
All the three power utility companies in the region -- Tanganyika Electric Supply Company, Kenya Power and Lighting Company and Umeme in Uganda -- were mentioned by respondents as some of the most corrupt public institutions in their respective countries.
The report also reveals that there is widespread graft in the three revenue authorities. The Uganda Revenue Authority is listed as the seventh most corrupt institution in the region, Kenya's is 25th while Tanzania's is 38th.
Others include water, security, health, licensing, immigration and infrastructure agencies.
This, the report says, has greatly contributed to the deepening of poverty and increasing the cost of doing business in East Africa.
"Corruption in key governance institutions and failure to reform them has led to a crisis of public and investor confidence with cataclysmic effects," the report, launched in Nairobi last week, says, noting that given the fluidity of international finance and trade, the East African Community has to create the right environment if the member countries are to attract and retain foreign domestic investments.
The police force in the three East African countries top their respective aggregate indices.
The Judiciary was also found to be one of the most corrupt institutions in the region with Tanzania's being ranked fourth in the regional aggregate index, Kenya's is eighth while Uganda's is 14th.
The survey sampled 10,517 respondents -- 3,500 from Kenya, 3,516 from Uganda and 3,501 from Tanzania -- drawn from all the administrative provinces in the three countries.
This, according to the report, is a loud testimony of the dire need for reforms to improve service delivery by the two institutions - the police and the Judiciary - that are tasked with enforcing law and order.
"The three countries have expressed their economic development, governance and social development plans elaborately. For these plans to be realised, investors must be confident of the respect for the rule of law as concerns their commercial interests. Trade disputes that arise must be judiciously and expeditiously settled. This cannot happen where judicial systems of the three countries are corrupt as indicated in this report," said Transparency International-Kenya executive director, Job Ogonda.
He said that it was ironical that the three East African governments had embarked on major roads, ports and telecommunication projects in line with their respective development plans - Poverty Eradication Plan for Uganda, while Kenya and Tanzania have formulated Vision 2030 and Vision 2025 respectively - whereas their water, public works and other infrastructure-related ministries ranked highly in the bribery index.
The chair of TI-Kenya board, Dr Richard Leakey, urged the institutions adversely mentioned in the report to seek the support of the private sector and civil society in entrenching accountability and transparency.
The survey sampled 10,517 respondents - 3,500 from Kenya, 3,516 from Uganda and 3,501 from Tanzania - drawn from all the administrative provinces in the three countries.
According to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, confidence crisis in key institutions such as the Judiciary, the police, public service delivery and the Electoral Commission following the 2007 post-election violence, cost the country in excess of Ksh239 billion ($3.06 billion).
Similar chaos, albeit in a smaller proportion, was witnessed in Zanzibar in the run up to the 2005 elections.
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