Kenya’s corruption inspired creation of world’s largest anti-graft agency

In casual conversations, it is becoming increasingly evident that many Kenyans have resigned themselves to the idea that corruption in the country is a culture; an inescapable part of our DNA.

Graft has captured national headlines for months now, with the Government’s current cash crunch leading to increased scrutiny of public spending, which has revealed the devastating impact of corruption on the economy.

But theft of taxpayer cash is not new in Kenya. So grave has corruption been in the corridors of Government that the country has the dubious distinction of inspiring the creation of the world’s most prominent anti-corruption body — Transparency International (TI).

Peter Eigen is the founder of the Berlin-based TI, which has a presence in more than 100 countries. He was working in Kenya as a World Bank representative when he had, as they say, his road-to-Damascus revelation.

He was inspired to start a non-governmental organisation to fight corruption in developing countries after encountering “corruption in government contracting in Kenya”, according to a TI press statement released when Mr Eigen was named Readers’ Digest’s “European of the Year” for his fight against global corruption.

The press statement also noted that Eigen was “disgusted by the many dubious schemes he came across”, and “he appealed to his bosses at the World Bank to confront the issue head-on, but they refused.”

Political abstinence

His bosses were apparently not keen on such confrontation because they feared it might “constitute a violation of the political abstinence prescribed by the Bank’s charter, stirring up a political hornet’s nest,” said Eigen in an article he wrote for the Journal of Democracy in 1996.

“Frustrated and disillusioned, Eigen realised that he could do more good for the developing world on the outside,” added the TI statement.

He retired from the World Bank in 1991, and in 1993 launched TI.

In the journal article, Eigen retraced his protracted efforts to set up an anti-corruption initiative. He says that in 1991, representatives of the World Bank stationed in Africa met in Swaziland to discuss an urgent request articulated by African leaders.

In this meeting, Eigen described corruption’s “enormous reach and its crippling effect on social, economic and political development”.

“I then proposed a plan of action that had evolved from lengthy discussions with many colleagues and friends in Nairobi .... Clearly, most people are against corruption. Why not, then, channel this opposition into the construction of an effective coalition promoting transparency?”

According to Eigen, many countries that were undergoing political transition were in desperate need of stronger integrity systems.

He also noted that the timing for the anti-corruption campaigns could not have been any better —the Cold War between the US and USSR, which often made the global super-powers indifferent to blatant legal and ethical violations, had just come to an end.

However, unable to act within the existing intergovernmental framework, and feeling the need to draw the private sector and other non-governmental actors into dialogue, Eigen and some colleagues at the World Bank decided to proceed with the venture independently, giving rise to TI.

Evidence of progress

By the time Eigen and his colleagues were setting up TI, one of Kenya’s mega scams, the Goldenberg scandal, was bubbling.

TI’s press statement noted that in 2003, Eigen saw evidence of his progress when he returned to Kenya and was fêted by newly-elected President Mwai Kibaki, who “affirmed his commitment to eradicating corruption”.

Also joining in the celebration was the then World Bank president, James Wolfensohn, who said: “It took someone like him, (working with many others) willing to ram his head into the walls of prejudice and timidity in the international community to help foster real change.”

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