Kenya Rife With Corruption, Reports Say

Corruption is so refined in Kenya that no one noticed for a good while that police headquarters was paying salaries to dead officers.

“People have been fiddling with the computers, and a lot of money has been lost,” said Noah arap Too, director of the Criminal Investigation Department. “Investigations are going on.”

Too would not say when the scam was detected, but the East African Standard reported Nov. 12 that the scheme had begun in 1993 and cost taxpayers 180 million Kenyan shillings, or about $3 million.

On the same day, a committee headed by Judge Richard Kwach issued a report detailing widespread corruption in the judiciary, ranging from kickbacks on fines to sexual harassment of defendants.

“Corruption is endemic. It is everywhere. Almost everybody in Kenya participates in, is affected by, or is a victim of corruption,” said Musikari Kombo, chairman of a parliamentary anti-corruption committee.

It is rare to find politicians and civil servants who don’t demand bribes ranging from a few shillings to millions--payments commonly referred to as “kitu kidogo,” or “something small” in Swahili.

Contractors and businessmen pay huge bribes to win government contracts. Police officers routinely accept bribes to let offenders go, and magistrates can be paid off to set criminals free.

Last May, Finance Minister Simeon Nyachae announced that the government was broke and said a major reason was customs officials taking bribes not to collect duties on imported goods.

An even more harmful and rampant form of corruption is the looting of public property, including land and government corporations, the private Institute of Economic Affairs says. That graft is the preserve of the political elite and their cronies, it adds.

For decades, the auditor-general’s office has chronicled misappropriation of funds or outright theft by senior government officials, but prosecutions have been rare.

In 1996, Transparency International, a Berlin-based group that keeps tabs on government corruption worldwide, ranked Kenya third behind Nigeria and Pakistan.

This year, Kenya ranked 11th of 85 countries perceived to be corrupt.

John Githongo, an influential newspaper columnist, warned his readers not to believe that things are getting better in Kenya. The country’s seeming improvement was solely because the watchdog group had added more countries to its survey, he said.

The cost of official corruption can be high.

In just one instance, the Finance Ministry paid $83 million to Goldenberg International in 1991 as export subsidies on gold and diamonds that were never exported. Kenya produces negligible quantities of gold and no diamonds.

Since coming to power in 1978, President Daniel arap Moi has regularly promised to tackle corruption.

But donor nations and international lenders, which provide financial assistance crucial to Kenya’s development, have not been impressed with his efforts, particularly in the Goldenberg case.

The International Monetary Fund acted first in August 1997, suspending a $220-million loan because, it said, Kenya’s government refused to tackle high-level corruption. The loss of funds worsened a recession.

David Frost, the head of the Chamber of Commerce in Birmingham, England, said corruption is making foreign investors avoid Kenya. “Who would risk plunging into a river full of crocodiles?” he said.