Traffic police, county health departments most bribery-prone public institutions: EACC

The Traffic police, County health department and regular police are the three most bribery-prone public institutions, a new survey by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) shows.

The 2023 National Ethics and Corruption Survey shows that there is a likelihood that each time a service is sought in the traffic police department, one is likely to be asked for a bribe 1.45 times.

For the county health department and the regular police, the prevalence is 1.05 and 1.02 times respectively.

The county education departments and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) were found to be among the top institutions one is likely to be asked for a bribe.

As for specific services, the integrity watchdog found that one is most likely to be asked for a bribe while seeking police security services. This was followed by seeking to bail an arrested person and reporting a crime or writing a statement.

Other government services where bribe soliciting is prevalent are when one is undergoing a driving test, registering a business and applying for a Teachers Service Commission (TSC) number.

The services one is least likely to be asked for a bribe are acquiring a visa, seeking a water connection and obtaining a death certificate.

Respondents EACC interviewed said they paid a bribe each time they visited a government office to register a business, apply for a TSC number, seek relief food or water, obtain a tender and register or transfer a vehicle.

The same applied to the collection of building or construction certificates, educational services, driving licenses, seeking of CDF funds, agricultural extension services and transfer of a pupil from one school to another.

“Impact of bribery on service delivery is more evident in an application for TSC number, seeking relief food, registration or transfer of a vehicle, collection of a construction certificate, seeking a driving license, seeking CDF funds and seeking agricultural extension services,” EACC said.

“Each time a person paid a bribe for these services, they were more likely to receive the service than if they did not pay the bribe.”

The report further recorded an increase in the national average bribe from Ksh.6,865 in 2022 to Ksh.11,625 in 2023.

Across various services, the highest average bribes are in seeking employment (Ksh.163,260), application for a passport (Ksh.74,428) and seeking a police abstract (Ksh.20,300).

On average, respondents paid the largest bribes to access services in the National Transport and Safety Authority (Ksh.81,801), followed by the Judiciary (Ksh.49,611), the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) (Ksh.40,000) and county government offices (Ksh.26,223).

Overall, passport applications account for the largest share of bribes paid nationally (35.8%);, followed by seeking employment (22.1%), seeking a police abstract (11.5%) and bailing of arrested individuals (10.3%), EACC said.

The anti-graft government agency surveyed a sample size of 5,100 individuals. Data collection was conducted from October 13 to November 4, 2023.