East African Business Week (Kampala)
6 July 2009
Nairobi — Kenya has been singled out as the number one corrupt state among the five East African countries.
In a report issued by Transparency International, corruption incidents in Kenya are higher compared to Uganda and Tanzania where Tanzania is said to have lower corruption incidences.
The first ever regional Bribery Index by Transparency International (TI) indicates that the Police forces in the three countries of are the most corrupt compared to all other government agencies. The Kenyan Police however tops the forces of the other neighbouring countries with a 66.5% incidence compared to Tanzania's 61.9% and Uganda's 58.3%.
According to Job Ogonda, TI Kenya's Executive Director, on the whole, Kenya has a bribery incidence of 45% followed by Uganda at 35% and Tanzania at a paltry 17%.
Ogonda said that the survey was carried out between 16 April and 15 May, 2009 among 10,517 respondents who were selected through a household sampling across the administrative provinces of the three countries surveyed.
"The respondents were asked to mention institutions where they were required to pay or where bribes were expected as a condition to access public services," Mr. Ogonda said.
The report released last week indicates that 51% of the Kenyans sampled reported paying bribes to get services in public institutions while in Uganda, 68% said they paid bribes to facilitate the delivery of services already catered for by the government through the taxes they pay.
Over half of those sampled across the region, the report says that they had paid or were expected to pay bribes to access services in institutions.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 East African Business Week. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
