- The Ministry of Lands is the most corrupt institution in Kenya, according to the report.
- Bribery in the form of money, followed by preferrential treatment and trading of favors.
- The report also indicates that some service seekers volunteered to bribe service providers.
Public institutions in Kenya are the biggest obstacles to the fight against corruption. This is in spite of the government’s anti-corruption “zero-tolerance” policy. The Citizen Satisfaction Report on Corruption in Service Delivery (2023) unravels a glaring misconduct within the public offices—regarded as institutions of greater responsibility.
According to the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) release by Transparency International, Kenya is ranked 121st out of 188 globally, with a score of 32 out of 100. This, however, is a slight improvement from the previous year, when Kenya ranked 126th, with a score of 31.
Despite this marginal progress, Kenya’s score remains below both the Sub-Saharan average of 33 and a global average of 43, indicating a persistent challenge within the public sector.
Participants were tasked with the responsibility of giving their opinion based on their personal experiences after seeking services from such institutions.
“The respondents were asked to state whether the institutions where they sought the services were corrupt or not corrupt. When the answer was affirmative, they were asked whether bribes were demanded from them or whether they volunteered the bribes.”
According to the report, the highest percentage was in the Ministry of Lands at 27.9% of the respondents, followed by the Public Trustee at 14.3% and the National Registration Bureau at 12.8%, with most offices having varying levels of corruption.
At least 3% (102) of the respondents indicated having been asked for a bribe, while 97% (3,253) were not asked for a bribe. Bribes were mostly in the form of money (94%), followed by preferential treatment at 4% and trading of favors at 2%.
Some service seekers also offered voluntary bribery in exchange for favors from service providers. The report shows that 92.6% of the respondents offered monetary bribes. Similarly, “6 (28.6%) out of the 21 evaluated institutions had respondents who reported to have volunteered bribes.”
