For the third successive year, Wajir has been named the most corrupt county, with 71.7 per cent of service seekers reporting being asked for a bribe.
A new report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission also shows that the county, led by Governor Mohamed Abdi, recorded the highest average amount of bribe paid at Sh14,354.
This is almost four times the national average of Sh3,833.
However, the services for which bribes were most likely to be solicited are rendered by both county and national governments.
The 2018 National Ethics and Corruption survey obtained by the Star ranks Kitui as the second most corrupt county.
About 43.4 per cent of service seekers in Kitui were asked for a bribe, with residents paying an average of Sh11,640 for various services.
The third most corrupt county, according to the survey, is Kiambu with 38 per cent of residents saying they have been asked for bribes to get government services.
Others are Kwale (36.6 per cent), Machakos (36.4 per cent), Makueni (36.2 per cent), West Pokot (35.8 per cent), Baringo (34.4 per cent), Murang’a (33.7 per cent) and Kajiado (31.8 per cent).
President Uhuru Kenyatta has scaled up the anti-graft crackdown since his re-election in 2017.
But the report suggests that these efforts may not be bearing fruits as more Kenyans continue to pay kickbacks to get services.
“Those who paid bribes to obtain government services increased by 11.9 percentage points to stand at 73.1 per cent,” the report shows.
Some 94.2 per cent of respondents failed to report corruption.
Fear of victimisation, ignorance of where to report and concerns that no investigative agencies will take action top the reasons Kenyans opt not to report corruption.
A total of 5,942 household respondents in all the 47 counties were interviewed for the survey conducted between 16 November and 19 December last year.
Kericho, Mombasa and Garissa are also listed among the counties where residents have to part with bribes to get services
According to the report, the average amount of bribe paid in Kericho is Sh11,265 followed by Mombasa at Sh9,257 and Garissa Sh8,731.
The services for which residents mostly bribed were the processing of birth certificates at 23.8 per cent, followed by medical attention at 17.5 per cent.
Birth certificates have become a compulsory document as the Ministry of Education requires it to generate the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS).
The report also indicates that registration and renewal of national identification card (10.1 per cent), seeking of employment (6.4 per cent), solving of land conflicts (5.7 per cent) and following up a police case (5.6 per cent) are among top services where Kenyans are forced to bribe officials.
Both the issuance of birth certificates and registration or renewal of IDs fall under the Ministry of Interior headed by CS Fred Matiang’i.
Other areas government officials have turned into cash cows are the bailing of arrested individuals, registration of groups, driving tests, water connection, filing tax returns, application for bursaries and follow up on pension.
Obtaining a tender attracted the highest average number of bribe demands at 3.46 times followed by application of passports (1.92), power connection or bill payment (1.67)
Application for an NHIF card, obtaining police abstract, application of KRA pin and TSC number are among the other areas.
“By socio-economic characteristics, urban dwellers pay higher bribes than rural residents. Males pay higher bribes than females while most educated persons pay higher bribes than those with less education,” the report found.
In a demonstration that procurement remains the centre of corruption in Kenya, the report indicates that obtaining tenders topped services with the highest average bribe.
Kenyans, the report shows, paid an average bribe of Sh88,294 to get tenders.
People seeking employment paid the second-highest bribe averaging Sh23,344, while those seeking government funds such as the Youth Fund parted with an average of Sh22,283.
Solving land conflicts cost an average of Sh6,645 in bribes while registration or collection of land title deed cost an average of Sh6,545.
For the release of impounded goods, wananchi had to part with an average of Sh6,000.
“Obtaining a tender attracted the highest average number of bribe demands at 3.46 times followed by application of passports (1.92), power connection or bill payment (1.67),” the report states.
According to the report, all service seekers who were asked to pay bribes in Samburu county complied.
They are followed by those in Wajir (96 per cent), Mandera (95.6 per cent), Nyeri (94.1 per cent) and Kilifi (92.6 per cent).
However, for the third year running, Bomet county recorded the least number of respondents paying bribes at only 8.7 per cent.
Other counties where a few citizens paid bribes are Nandi (40 per cent), Nakuru (55.6 per cent), Kisii (56.1 per cent), and Uasin Gishu at (56.4 per cent).
About half of the respondents who paid bribes said it was the only way they could access the service.
Twenty-eight per cent of the respondents opted to pay bribes to hasten the process while 8 per cent paid to avoid a problem with the authorities.
According to the report, of those who paid a bribe, 82.1 per cent received the service while only 29.3 per cent of those who refused to pay kickbacks received the services.
“Notably, 20.1 per cent of the respondents did not receive the service even after paying the bribe while 70.7 per cent were denied services after failing to pay a bribe,” the report shows.
