A report by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission claims that most Kenyans would rather not report on corruption as they believe no action will be taken against the vice.
More than 27 per cent of Kenyans who witnessed bribery and other forms of corruption said they did not lodge any complaint, a survey by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption (EACC) has revealed.
According to the survey report released in Nairobi on Monday, 26.1 per cent cited intimidation as the main reason why they chose not to report corruption.
Another 15.6 per cent claimed they did not know where to report such cases while 15.4 per cent said they just did not think of reporting violation of ethics.
Most of the Kenyans who chose to report corruption went to police (30.40 per cent), senior management of various institutions (21 per cent) and chief’s office, most in rural areas, at 18 per cent.
Other cases were reported at community meetings, Huduma centres, Law Society of Kenya, governor’s offices, religious leaders/ kadhis court’s amongst others.
But to the shock of EACC, a whopping 55.8 per cent of those who reported the vice said that no action was taken, killing their morale.
Some 14.2 per cent of those who reported the case said investigation were undertaken but in those cases, the suspects and accused officers were just given a mere warning.
While giving reasons why corrupt officers have not been jailed, EACC Chief Executive Officer Halakhe Waqo cited lack of goodwill from stakeholders.
“We cannot just punish anybody or recommend an action to the Director of Public Prosecutions without obtaining sufficient evidence. Most of those accused always use their position to scuttle our plans,” he said.
The report further revealed that potential harassment and reprisal was the main reason why majority of issues involving corruption were not being reported for investigation, at 77.6 per cent.
Another 72 per cent said they failed to report because they did not have sufficient evidence.
Other reasons given for non-action on corruption were complexity in reporting, including fear of arrest and long distances to the relevant offices.
From the report, corruption has deep roots in application and issuance of birth certificates (17.3 per cent), collection and renewal of ID (14.6 per cent), medication (11. 9 per cent) and employment (5.6 per cent).
Others are land conflict and cases, collection of title deeds, reporting crime to police and writing statements.
In counties, finance and planning department was rated the most corrupt at 17.8 per cent followed by county health services, transport system and county public works department.