EACC names most corrupt ministries

The Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government has been ranked as the most prone to corruption in a report released by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) on Monday.

The report dubbed National Corruption Survey 2017 showed that the chances of a bribe being paid within the Ministry of Interior was 64.7 percent followed by the Ministries of Health (27.8%) and Lands (23.9%).

The Transport Ministry was ranked fourth at 13 percent followed by the Ministries of Education (11.7%) and Devolution (10.3%).

At 23.8 percent, the Kenya Police was ranked first among the government departments and agencies perceived to be most prone to corruption, followed by the National Police Service Commission at 13.7%, public hospitals (9.8%), Kenya Revenue Authority (8%), National Land Commission (7.3%) and National Transport and Safety Authority (4.9%) and Immigration department (4.3%).

In the survey conducted between September 18 and October 24 last year and which sampled 5,977 households across the 47 counties, 43.6 percent of the respondents said corruption was the leading problem facing the country.

Other top problems cited by the respondents were poverty (37%) followed by Unemployment (32.2%), unfavorable economic conditions (22.2%) and political instability (21.8%).

The report further showed that the most common forms of unethical conduct in the country are delays in service provision (40.6%), corruption activities including bribery (39.1%), conflict interest (32.9%), criminal activities such as fraud, theft and embezzlement (31%), discrimination (30.7%) and lateness (28%).

According to the survey, the Finance and Planning Department in County Governments was ranked as the most prone to corruption at 17.8 percent followed by County Health Services including ambulance, health facilities and cemeteries (15.2%) and County Transport.

The report, however, noted that the rating of the level of corruption and unethical conduct dropped to 70.4 percent from 79.4 percent recorded in the 2016 Survey.

The 2017 Corruption Survey report was unveiled at an event held at the KICC in Nairobi.