13 ways to combat corruption in Kenya

Here is my thirteen-point proposal on combating corruption in Kenya, based on Lectures that I have recently delivered at various forums:

1 Throw the current policy, legal and institutional frameworks for combating corruption into the dustbin.  They are ill conceived and cannot achieve their intended or presumptive goal(s).

2 Rethink the Ndegwa Report’s recommendation that allowed civil, public and state officers to engage in private business.  The fight against corruption shall never get anywhere so long as we allow this conflict of interest.

3 Constitute a multi-disciplinary think tank, comprising intellectuals and practitioners from various fields, to formulate new policy, legal and institutional frameworks for combating corruption.  The think-tank should be wary of an ultra-legal, linear or single-dimension approach to corruption.

4 Grant unconditional amnesty to all corrupt acts and omissions from the colonial days to date.  The corrupt are too entrenched, having enjoyed unhindered access to state patronage since the colonial days.  Any attempt to fight past corruption will never get anywhere.  They will easily overrun the best professional teams from our State Law Office, the Police Service and the DPP.  In other words, fight corruption prospectively, with effect from the date of the new policy, legal and institutional frameworks set out in (3) above.

5 Forget the idea of eradicating corruption.  No country or society has ever achieved this.  Instead, make a policy decision on who can engage in corruption, and what type of corruption they can engage in.  Academic literature suggests that decentralized corruption is far more pernicious than centralised corruption.  In other words, allow only the big boys/girls, perhaps at the level of principal secretary and upwards, to engage in corruption.  That’s what China and some of the Asian Tigers did to get their economic transformation, though no one will tell you this;

6 Establish a single stop shop for grant of all business and regulatory licenses and permits.  The current Huduma Centre model can be easily tweaked to achieve this.

7 Make corruption a predominantly economic and political issue, rather than a predominantly legal, social or ethical issue.

8 Establish appropriate schemes of incentives and sanctions for corruption.  All people, including bishops and eunuchs, will inevitably engage in corruption if they believe that the benefits they will derive out of it outweigh the costs they are likely to incur (economists call it rationality or cost-benefit analysis).

9 Ensure the country’s laws do not grant broad discretionary power on any person, authority or institution.  Also ensure the legal system is crafted in such a way as to give citizens and investors an alternative if they encounter a public officer that is keen on abusing public power and discretion.

10 Make politics, and the public service, high risk and low-reward enterprises.  In other words, consider a political economy dimension of corruption in Kenya.  It is no accident that the super-rich in Kenya owe their fortune to proximity to the state as opposed to a patentable invention, hard work or remarkable talent.

 

11 Establish a social value system that stigmatizes instead of celebrating corruption.  Our pre-colonial forebearers seem to have had better clues on this.  Their social value system celebrated industry, courage, patience, finesse, tenacity, talent and such things.  Material possessions were not a sine qua non for having a high status in our pre-colonial societies.

12 Reestablish the moral, social and political legitimacy of the Kenyan state.  Most, if not all, our current state institutions have an illegitimate inception, having been established by the colonial government to exploit, plunder and oppress rather than serve the people.  Again, most of our institutions, except for the Judiciary, have not made any effort to shed this legacy.

13 Lastly, make a lasting decision to eradicate impunity.  The fight against corruption will never get anywhere if the high and mighty in society think they can get away with any and all forms of malfeasance.