War on graft goes digital

Emboldened by the new Constitution and growing connectivity, people are increasingly using ICT platforms to report cases of corruption in the economy, writes FREDRICK OBURA

In a Bribery Index released last year by Transparency International, corruption in Kenya remains high in comparison to the other countries in the East Africa region.

The East African Bribery Index, which reveals that a whopping 81 per cent of Kenyans paid a bribe to the police in the course of last year, puts the Kenya Police as the most corrupt institution in the country.

Ministry of Lands, Registrar of Persons, Immigration Department, the Mombasa City Council, the Judiciary, Ministry of Medical Services and Provincial Administration complete the top 10 list of institutions where officials solicit or accept bribes for delivery of service.

Kenyans, emboldened by the new Constitution, are now taking the war on graft to the Internet.

People are increasingly using ICT platforms to report cases of corruption in many sectors of the economy.

Tired of extortionist police officers, Antony Ragui for instance, founded www.ipaidabribe.or.ke. This site is attracting long lists of claims from Kenyans saying they have been forced to pay bribes to officials.

Ragui says he launched the platform based on a similar site in India (ipaidabribe.com) to highlight the good and the bad of Kenyan officialdom.

"This website (ipaidabribe.or.ke) is a crowdsourcing platform that allows Kenyans to report their experience with various government agencies and other institutions," says Ragui.

"It gathers information on cases of corruption and general experiences with officials in different arms of the government, civil society and the private sector," he says.

Expose vice

"We hope the data collected would help reduce cases of corruption to allow Kenyans enjoy better services."

Since it became operational late last year, about 446 cases estimated at over Sh9 million have been reported. Bribery at the police, municipal council, Customs and excise and at the passport departments are on the lead.

The site says over Sh149,800 in bribes were paid to police, 28,550 to municipal services, Sh1,035,00 were paid for passports and national identity cards, and 17,800 to lands officials.

In many cases, motorists said they had not been guilty of any traffic offence, but had paid bribes to speed up their journey or avoid threatened jail time.

Some readers said they had not paid bribes, even though officials solicited them. Several said they had challenged the officers, simply refused to pay, or even burst into tears until the officials gave up.

"A year ago, I had to renew my passport urgently so that I could travel. After paying the requisite fees at Nyayo House, I was then told I had to wait for up to three weeks to get my new passport," one whistleblower wrote.

"This was not going to work for me and I explained the officer attending to me that I needed at least ten days to process my Schengen visa. He was sympathetic but unhelpful. He then suggested that he could ‘help’ speed up the process with Sh10,000."

"Annoyed at his wayward ways, I told him I wouldn’t give Sh10,000, Sh5000 or even Sh1 over and above the requisite amount and that his only chance of redeeming himself from a possible exposure is if he helped sort me out. It must have worked because three days later, I received an SMS that my passport was ready."

One wrote that in a municipal office: "I raised my voice — nearly shouting — dismissing his call for a bribe and demanding to speak to his supervisor."

Not all gloom

"The man nearly collapsed and gave me my permit in no time!"

A handful of positive reports in the "I didn’t have to pay a bribe" section of the site commended some officials for professional service, with one reader mentioning how police officials recovered his wife safely after she was abducted, then bought the couple a meal.

According to corruption indices, Kenya has slowly improved on its rankings over the last two years.

In 2009, the country was the most corrupt in the region with a prevalence rate of 45 per cent. In 2010, it was ranked as the third most corrupt with a rate of 31.9 per cent.

The survey also shows that a majority of Kenyans perceive the country to be corrupt. Another 84 per cent said the country was either corrupt or extremely corrupt while 45.5 per cent said there was limited commitment from Government to fight corruption.

"We plan to integrate an SMS interface to allow those not hooked up to the Internet to also share their experience and get them an opportunity to report their cases," he said.

Ragui says future plans also includes partnering with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, Judiciary, and Office of the Ombudsman and other interested bodies on how to share data collected to the benefit of Kenyans.