• Some of these governments are products of corruption. To expect them to institutionalise integrity is to ask them to bite the hands that feed them.
• The conscientious don't constitute a critical mass in the fight against corruption.
On African Anti-Corruption Day, last week, Transparency International released the 10th edition of its Global Corruption Barometer for Africa. The edition surveys the state of theft in 35 African countries.
The report confirms what conscientious citizens know.
It reports about 130 million people in the 35 countries paid bribes to access public services. About 50 per cent of the 47,000 respondents say their governments are not doing enough to fight the scourge.
Some of these governments are products of corruption. To expect them to institutionalise integrity is to ask them to bite the hands that feed them. People who run these governments depend on corruption. Some rely on proceeds of corruption to subsidise their lifestyles. Some use proceeds of plunder to finance conspicuous consumption.
The conscientious don't constitute a critical mass in the fight against corruption. Their cries for integrity don't influence policy or action.
Those who don't know are caught in the vicious cycle of want and dependency. Although the masses live in want of a better life, they don't see themselves as part of the problem.
Victims of corruption defer to the people in power, believing they can do nothing to cause change. Those who try suffer backlash. When you condemn corruption, the gullible say you don't want them to suck the honey. They tell you everyone is corrupt, and that those outside are waiting for their turn to loot. This is raw apathy.
Victims of corruption defer to the people in power, believing they can do nothing to cause change. Those who try suffer backlash. When you condemn corruption, the gullible say you don't want them to suck the honey. They tell you everyone is corrupt, and that those outside are waiting for their turn to loot. This is raw apathy.
The 2019 Global Corruption Barometer for Africa finds the poor are more likely to give bribes. They give bribes in hospitals, schools, and immigration. They bribe when police find them standing or without seat belts in public service vehicles.
Millions of people suffer when they seek public services. Some think bribery is the new normal. The masses are hungry, but they are not angry enough to turn the tables on lootocrats.
Instead, they encourage the wayward ways of the people in power. Their complicity feeds the gluttony of civil servants.
Consequences of corruption are glaring in public tendering, health, policing, immigration, and among public service providers. Corruption at the Kenya Power and Lighting Company was ignored, until it hit the tipping point last year.
A power consumer in the village gets a bill of Sh180,000. Creators of the bill demand bribes to lower the figure. Even sugar millers don't get such corruption-generated bills. Fraud at Kenya Power is the subject of litigation and Directorate of Criminal Investigations probe.
Impunity at Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company is infamous. About 200 complaints have been compiled by the Commission on the Administration of Justice. There are also 158 cases against the water firm at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.
The 2019 Global Corruption Barometer for Africa finds the poor are more likely to give bribes. They give bribes in hospitals, schools, and immigration. They bribe when police find them standing or without seat belts in public service vehicles.
Sample this: Seven years ago, a customer complained to Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company of a tenant who had, in collusion with the employees of the firm, fraudulently changed meter account details. Documented internal investigations have confirmed a fraud. The suspects have been identified. But the conflict has not been resolved.
The conflict has, over the years, moved from various Nairobi Water offices—estate, communications manager, customer relations, inspectorate, regional manager, legal officer, company secretary, two commercial directors, former managing director, and the acting chief executive officer's office.
Instead of resolving the issue, as the customer's lawyers have demanded over time, Nairobi Water is harassing the customer. The customer is complaining of fraud, attempts to cover up fraud in a public office, and harassment. But Nairobi Water is not addressing the motive of the fraud. It is stuck at "illegal editing of customer's account''.
Corruption erodes the moral fabric of society; violates the social and economic rights of the vulnerable; undermines democracy; subverts the rule of law, which is the basis of civilisation; retards development; and denies the poor the benefits of open competition.