Writes Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.

THE Republic of Kenya has continued to drop in the corruption perception index and has this year been ranked 154 out of the 178 countries, up from 142.

The index measure domestic and public sectors corruption had placed Kenya in the same group of 25 lowest-scoring countries together with countries no system of governance like Somalia, which took the bottom spot scoring 1.1Burma, Afghanistan and Iraq followed closely.

And on a scale of zero to 10 Kenya, scored 2.1, indicating a high corruption perception. A high corruption perception, a score of 10 means low levels of graft.

Some of the major financial scams, which have rocked the country in the recent past, and which have remained unresolved to-date include the Anglo Leasing of contracts which were mostly signed in 2002 when the Kenya government decided to replace its passport security printing system.

The tender was originally quoted at Kshs 588 million, but was awarded to a non-existent British firm, Anglo Leasing Finance, at more than Kshs 2.9 billion.

The Goldenberg was another political financial scandal where the government of Kenya was found to have subsidized exports of gold far beyond standard arrangement during the 1990s, by paying. the company Goldenberg International 35 per cent more than their foreign currency earnings.

The government said that Kshs 5.8 billion was allegedly paid out on export compensation to a phantom gold export which never existed..

And then come the Triton Oil scandal of 2009 which involved the unauthorized releasing of oil by the Kenya Pipeline Company {KPC} without informing the financiers. This particular scandal reached the public domain in January 2009.

The release of the oil occurred in December 2008 when Triton Oil Company was allowed by KPC to withdraw the oil amounting to Kshs 7.6 billion.

Triton Oil Company was owned by Mr Yagnesh Devani a Kenyan citizen of Indian origin. Kenyan courts has since issued warrant of the arrest of Mr Devani in vain. He is said to be living in self-imposed exile in either India or the UK.

In the latest development, and without giving specific factors that might have led to the ranking, the Transparency International report released world wide this week said exposure f corruption in the public sector could have been the cause of the poor rating.

Recent efforts to fight corruption adopted by the government, especially after the promulgation of the new Constitution, were not factored in the latest survey.

“The continued dismal scores, consigning even countries that in total turmoil and without a government show that corruption is still a major problem in Kenya, proving that even efforts put forth to fight the vice have not had any impact,” TI Kenya section executive director Samuel Kimeu said.

In the African continent, the least corrupt countries are Botswana, Mauritius, Cape Varde, Seychelles and South Africa.

Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Burundi, Equatorial Guinea and Kenya are considered the most corrupt.

In Eastern African region, Uganda was named the most corrupt with its neighboring Kenya coming immediate second.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com