Police Lead in Corruption, 56% of Kenyans Bribe Them for Assistance

Findings from a new report have shown that the Kenyan police are the most corrupt officials and the government is doing a bad job at fighting this vice.

According to the Afrobarometer analysis which interviewed 2,400 adult Kenyans in August-September 2019, a majority of the respondents say that the level of corruption in the country has increased.

The results indicated that almost two-thirds (64 percent of the respondents) say the level of corruption in the country increased during the year preceding the survey. This figure is a 23-percentage-point increase compared to 2014.

Figure 1: Level of corruption | Kenya | 2014-2019

On the same note, 8 in 10 citizens, 79 percent say that the government is doing a bad job of fighting corruption. This figure is also a significant increase form what was reported in 2014.

Figure 2: Government performance in fighting corruption | Kenya | 2014-2019

Leading the pack are the police. A total of 56 percent of the respondents say they bribed the police for assistance, 39 percent did so to avoid problems with the police.

Another 49 percent bribed government officials to obtain identity documents as 24 percent paid the bribe for medical care, and 18 percent for public school services.

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Among the respondents included individuals who had contact with selected public services during the preceding year. A substantial proportion of these say they had to pay a bribe to obtain the services they needed.

The most frequent experience of paying a bribe was among citizens who sought assistance from the police.

Figure 3: Paid bribes to access public services | Kenya | 2019

Only 2 in 10 Kenyans (18 percent) believe that ordinary people can report incidents of corruption to authorities without fear of retaliation or other negative consequences.Sadly, only a small minority believe that people can report corruption to the authorities without fear of retaliation.

Figure 4: Can ordinary people report corruption without fear? | Kenya | 2019

The police are most widely perceived as corrupt: 68 percent of Kenyans say police officials are corrupt. Substantial proportions of the population see widespread corruption by the president and officials in his office (33 percent), county assembly members (46 percent), and members of Parliament (47 percent).

Figure 5: Perceived corruption among leaders | Kenya | 2019

Meanwhile, corruption hit the headlines again recently when a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists implicated high-profile figures around the world. This included prominent personalities in Kenya using secret offshore accounts to accumulate wealth.