The appetite for big projects that promise huge kick backs has for long defined Kenya's (under)development paradigm. The runaway debt and inefficiency in the design and implementation of major government projects are sordid reminders of the ignominious journey we have travelled as a country.
Public theft, which we christened corruption, has uncanny ways of morphing in form when cornered. We have seen how all tricks are employed to get that undeserved extra dime. The uncouth scramble to occupy certain offices is fuelled by corruption.
The transport sector is one of the worst affected, with Saccos acting like cartels. Because it's deemed lucrative, the national and county governments have deployed heavily, in its wake inflicting a double onslaught on the sector now chocking in corruption.
There is a stealth return to the pre-Michuki era with fare hike at the slightest increase in pump prices, carrying of extra passengers and abandoning wearing of badges.
Among the civil service and state offices, there's a feeling that the salaries are never enough, even among the top earners. Employees therefore engage in unethical 'moonlighting', a euphemism for corruption.
Rigged systems are not working for the public but in favour of those administering them. We need scrupulous people in those spaces. The loopholes exploited by the corrupt are hardly sealed due to vested interests.
Therefore sufficient measures deliberately put in place to not only prevent but also discourage the vice, starting with the givers and how the services they seek are dispensed, will be the game changer. Further, a robust, effective feedback mechanism that enables evaluation of the scheme is imperative.
Economic and political analyst