The directive that firms doing business with Kenya government sign a code of conduct is likely to create another avenue for corruption. It might jeopardize the much needed quest for ease of doing business in Kenya. Incentives drive human action. The surge in mega corruption scandals and impunity implies increase in incentives towards what society largely disapproves of. 

Corruption thrives when society limits opportunities and options for a given people. In the Kenyan scenario, the electoral democratic platform limits the opportunities and options for individuals to access power unless they use money to sneak in. The side effect of this limitation creates incentives for individuals to amass wealth in order to buy themselves into leadership. The act of buying oneself into an elective office sows seeds for the next cycle of corrupt activities.

Unfettered and discretionary powers insulated by ethnic equations popularly referred to as “our own” take care of the seedlings that sprout out of competitive politics. This creates an “ecosystem of the corrupt,” those who benefit directly or directly from the looting spree of public coffers. The Ecosystem of the corrupt invests heavily to defend the status quo at all costs. Such an ecosystem readily confuses individual interests for national interests. It will always skew what was originally a national interest into a political leaders’ interest. Public office simply becomes a vehicle to access and loot state resources. To sustain itself, the ecosystem of the corrupt study and work up leaders’ appetite-driving off the national interest highway to short term focus. 

The overzealous quest to satiate leaders’ appetites as opposed to growing countries’ economies is the biggest obstacle to development in Africa. When leaders anchor a country’s stability unto them and not rule of law they expose populations to unpredictable economic and security futures.  The state of Kenyan economy witnesses an era in which corruption has clogged the law machines. Laws came into place to tame undesirable human habits but alas, the culture of defending “our own” tames the law instead. 

If a country’s resources are focused on leaders’ appetites and putting up facades it cannot grow its economy. In Lee Kuan Yew’s book “From Third World To First,” one gets a quick view of African leaders in the 60s. In the book, a minister brags how he imposed tax on imported shoes in order to bolster his shoe factory production; presidents fly private jets and incur parking fees yet their populations are poor; preoccupation with politics against former colonizers; rhetoric and hyperbole than substance is the order of business.

A quick shuttle to the present day African leadership focus is similar to what Lee Kuan Yew observed. Hotel sales people observe that Kenyan and by extension African top civil servants prefer overpriced facilities to cheap ones. Procurement reports depict an ocean of overpriced items. Officials from developed economies in Europe and lately China observe strict caps on public funds top dignitaries can spend on foreign trips.  The irony is official from poor countries that rely on same countries for aid opt for the opposite – high priced outlets. 

To tame corruption, deliberate efforts must be put in place to address the short term driven stimuli that drives people to be corrupt.  True leaders draw their energies and vision from a long term perspective of the future and how it interacts with the present. Kenya and by extension Africa must overhaul the system of how leaders are identified and elected. The public relations driven electoral process does little to curb corruption, if anything it wets the appetite for politicians to steal more and invest in P.R. machinery. Leaders should be identified through successive layers of peer reviewed system through which one must graduate in stages to finally land the leadership mantle. Give Kenyan incentives to produce and earn wealth, give Kenyan opportunities to grow their talents, give Kenyans options in order to reduce the scourge of corruption.

By James Shikwati

The author  is Founder Director of  Inter Region Economic Network james@irenkenya.com