HomeCorruption is one of Africa’s biggest hurdles. A joke is often made that a caucasian, an Asian and an African were having a conversation with God. The legend says that God gave the caucasian brains while he gave the Asian business acumen. For the Africans, he gave them good weather and natural resources.
The Asian and the caucasian protested and asked God why he gave the African everything. It’s said that God chuckled and said, “Wait till you see their leaders.” While that might just be a legend that attempts to describe why Africa lags behind in development, it has a lot of truths to it.
Recently, observing the Kenyan context, the outgoing President Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, once confessed that Ksh 2 billion is stolen on a daily basis. Interestingly enough when you look at the annual Auditor General’s report, Nation said that the statement by the president was mostly true.
In the financial year 2017/2018, more than Ksh 514 billion could not be accounted for. That’s an estimate of Ksh 1.4 billion daily. For the financial year 2020/2021 it’s estimated that Ksh 722.8 billion shillings was unaccounted for. This translates to Ksh 1.98 billion being lost daily.
This kind of wanton looting and siphoning of public funds hurts the vulnerable and marginalized communities the most. With only a 40% water connection penetration for example, residents who don’t have water are left to walk long distances. Others are forced to partake in dirty water thereby exposing themselves to sickness and disease. All these challenges could be solved if the money was spent for its intended purposes.
According to Transparency International, Kenya has a corruption score of 31 out of 100 with 0 being the most corrupt. This is lower than Africa’s average of 32 and way below the international average of 43. With a weak judicial system, lack of political goodwill, impunity, mediocrity in government systems and a growing numbness to corruption cases by the general Kenyan population, corruption has been thriving in growing proportions in this country.
That’s where NGOs come in.
