There is no knowing how deep corruption runs in Kenya but as the circle of implicated public officials widens, many fear the worst. President Mwai Kibaki’s 2002 election pledge to stamp out corruption has been blown to pieces – donors estimate that since he came to power, more than $1bn has been pilfered.
Significantly, John Githongo, Mr Kibaki’s chief adviser on corruption and the former executive director of the Kenyan chapter of anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, recently quit. The move reinforced sentiment that the government was losing the battle against corruption.
Foreign donors and diplomats have stepped up their criticism of the Kibaki administration, saying that aid payments were under threat unless the government clamped down.
This has not been lost on the planning and national development minister, Anyang Nyong’o, whose criticisms from within government of its anti-corruption measures have been conspicuous. As chief negotiator, he knows all too well that corruption threatens loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), bilateral assistance from the likes of the US, the EU and Japan, and foreign direct investment. Indeed, it threatens the coalition government’s own reform agenda.
“The old habits of running public affairs through conspiracy, intrigues, clannism and cabal politics are coming back to undermine the establishment of democratic and open processes of governance,” he said recently.
Key legislation, including privatisation laws, remain moribund. Civil services reform has been slow – public sector wages are equivalent to 9% of GDP, compared with 4% in neighbouring Tanzania and 6% in Uganda.
Mr Nyong’o, who has a PhD in political science from the University of Chicago, is credited with behind-the-scenes manoeuvring to get fellow ministers to support reform plans and economic policy. His greatest contribution may be to keep pressure on the government to address the rot of corruption.
