Political goodwill needed in anti-corruption fight

Today, African countries mark the Africa Anti-Corruption Day, celebrated on July 11 every year.  This day provides an opportunity to governments across Africa to pause and reflect on individual anti-corruption progress. It is only with such introspection that we can ascertain what is working, what is not working and what other means should be employed to slay the dragon of corruption. 

We cannot run away from the fact that Africa has a serious corruption problem. According to the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa, the continent loses more than $50 billion annually through illicit financial outflows.

These outflows, inevitably, hamper Africa’s efforts to uplift the living standards of her people, feed the populations and provide affordable education for all. Moreover, corruption has impacted basic services provision negatively. The net sum of all this is that achieving the African Agenda 2063, and the global Sustainable Development Goals, remain a mirage. 

Rampant corruption within government has been the Achilles' heel of successive regimes in Kenya. When Kenya Kwanza took over leadership in 2022, it promised a radical shift from the way things were being done and also promised to tackle corruption. Unfortunately, it has failed to do so even as corruption and wastage in government get new leases of life. 

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta once complained that corruption robbed this country of Sh2 billion daily. While this is happening, hospitals lack drugs and are poorly staffed, notwithstanding that there are about 1,200 medical interns demanding to be posted. Schools lack laboratories, books and enough tutors, because there is no money, yet Sh2 billion is lost daily. 

Children from poor families cannot go to school for lack of capitation and principals cannot manage schools effectively for the same reason. In the midst of all this, the irony is that the political class keeps displaying opulence that has angered the Generation Z into protesting and demanding accountability in government. In truth, unless there is political goodwill and genuine desire to fight corruption, we are headed nowhere. Corruption must be fought to give all a fair chance in life.