The latest findings of a Consumer Insight report show that the police
force and local authorities remain the two most corrupt institutions in
the past three years.
In the latest survey covering the past 12 months, the police scored 37
per cent followed closely by the City, county and municipal councils
across the country with a score of 16 per cent.
Topped list
Compared to the previous two years, this year's corruption incidence in the two institutions has gone down.
In 2007, the police force and local authorities topped the list of most
corrupt institutions with a score of 43 per cent and 22 per cent
respectively.
In 2006, they scored 47 per cent and 24 per cent respectively,
indicating a gradual reduction in the frequency of bribery cases in
these institutions.
The Consumer Insight report findings come just five months after
another report by Transparency International ranked the police in Kenya
as the 11th most corrupt institution.
Among others, bribery in the police force has been attributed to poor pay of officers.
Police officers have been accused of exploiting the fear of arrest and
violence in their victims, who prefer to part with a bribe rather than
face the prospect of any time behind bars.
TI warned that rampant police corruption threatened to make it socially
acceptable to use alternative systems of justice such as illegally
armed groups, vigilantes and mob violence.
Coming third after the two institutions are other organisations' not specified by the report, with a score of six per cent.
Also on the Consumer Insight bribery index are private companies with a
five per cent score and the judiciary with four per cent.
Like the Kenya police, the judiciary in Kenya has also fared badly in
corruption reports and equally faced repeated calls for reforms.
Public hospitals, public schools, the Immigration Department, the
Ministry of Labour, and other Government ministries have not been
spared on the corruption index, having been ranked with a score of
three per cent each.
They are followed by the Kenya Revenue Authority, the Department of
Defence and the Provincial Administration, all recording a score of two
per cent.
The report has given a majority of institutions a low ranking of one per cent on the bribery index.
Falling under this group are state corporations, public and private
universities, the Teachers Service Commission, the Ministry of Public
Works, private schools, Parliament and the National Social Security
Fund.
Low score
The most improved among these low bribery incidence institutions are
state corporations, which recorded a three per cent score in 2006 and
2007.
The Kenya Revenue Authority has also recorded commendable improvement,
according to the survey, having posted a score of five per cent in the
previous two years.
Public and private universities have maintained a low score of between
one and two per cent over the last three years according to the latest
survey in which 5,000 people were interviewed.