Police officers, National Registration Bureau officers, and medical officers, including doctors, clinical officers and nurses, as well as land registry and immigration officers, have been revealed to be among the top recipients of bribes.
According to the National Ethics and Corruption Survey 2024 by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), these officials were identified as the most frequent recipients of bribes within the public service.
“An analysis of bribe receivers by profession revealed that police officers (29.93 per cent), National Registration Bureau (19.7 per cent), medical officers (9.53 per cent), officials from the land registry (7.39 per cent), and immigration officers (5.8 per cent) were the most bribe receivers,” the report noted.
Other health workers in public hospitals (4.94 per cent), area chiefs and assistant chiefs (3.95 per cent), Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) officers (2.49 per cent), and National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) officers (1.84 per cent) were also highlighted.
National Social Security Fund (NSSF) officials (1.4 per cent), Teachers Service Commission (TSC) officers (1.22 per cent), County Executive Employees (1.21 per cent), Members of County Assembly (MCAs) (0.94 per cent), and Lands Commission officers (0.83 per cent), were also put on the spotlight.
EACC noted that the majority of the respondents paid bribes in the form of monetary (cash) (99.5 per cent) while only a few paid in the form of food and drink (0.5 per cent).
In addition, the majority of respondents (75.6 per cent ) paid the bribe before the service was offered, followed by those who paid during the service (18.5 per cent), those who paid after the service (3.1 pr cent), and those who paid partly before and partly after the service (2.8 per cent).
Other officials included in the report were Huduma Centre officers, county/tax revenue officers, teachers, lecturers, and professors, county inspectorate officers, civil registration officers, traffic police officers, prison officers, and social service officers.
Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers, Members of Parliament (MPs), prosecutors, judges or magistrates, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) officers, members of the Armed Forces, and National Treasury officers were also put on the spot.
Further, the Survey sought to establish the number of respondents who were asked to pay a bribe to be given a service, reasons why they paid the bribe, and whether they reported those incidents. The proportion of respondents who were asked to pay a bribe to receive a service increased to 25.4 percent in 2024 from 17.7 percent in 2023.
Respondents who sought services and actually paid bribes stood at 17.1 percent. The report disclosed that most of the respondents (43.3 per cent) paid a bribe because it was demanded, followed by 23.3 percent who indicated it was the only way to access a service, and 18 percent who paid to avoid delay in service.
Interestingly, a majority (72.5 per cent) of the service seekers were dissatisfied with public services received after paying a bribe, contrary to 20.7 percent who were satisfied.
