Police, Land ministry and the Judiciary top corruption list

What you need to know:

The Transparency International survey indicates that the three organisations led in corruption in a country that was ranked fourth in East Africa in the bribery index.
The police department has been leading the bribery index for years.
Transparency International notes that removal of corrupt officers and creation of new oversight bodies has failed to change the face of corruption in the security agency.

The Police, Land ministry and Judiciary remain the most corrupt institutions in Kenya despite huge resources spent on them over the past three years, a new bribery survey reveals.

The Transparency International survey indicates that the three organisations led in corruption in a country that was ranked fourth in East Africa in the bribery index.

Their poor show comes amid reforms that have seen billions of tax payers money used in hiring new staff, upgrading IT networks and expanding facilities in the police, courts and the Land registry.

“The findings indicate that corruption continues to stalk key sectors, including those that have received considerable attention in the reform process since the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya in 2010,” reads the report.

The police department has been leading the bribery index for years. Transparency International notes that removal of corrupt officers and creation of new oversight bodies like the National Police Service and the Independent Police Oversight Authority has failed to change the face of corruption in the security agency.

The formation of these independent bodies offered fresh optimism to the public that previous corruption-prone process such as the hiring and promotion of police officers and general management of staff would be conducted above board.

The police received the biggest share of bribes paid among the surveyed institutions, accounting for 43.5 per cent of bribes. The Land ministry accounted for 11.9 per cent of bribes, Judiciary (11.6 per cent) and Kenya Revenue Authority (7.7 per cent).

Efforts such as the recent reorganisation that saw Cabinet secretary Charity Ngilu suspend operations in land offices to revamp the registry, employment of new staff, issuance of title deeds and the planned digitisation of records have not changed citizen’s attitude.

Judiciary officials received the largest bribes, with an average of Sh7,885, down from Sh8,390 last year. The Land officials took Sh7,219, police (Sh4,821) and tax men (Sh6,815), up from Sh3,986 last year.

The survey interviewed 2,164 respondents in Kenya across 16 counties between May and September this year.