Direct and indirect effects of poverty in Kenya

Could there be a better term to describe poverty than having inadequate income? But it is more than that, for it is about lack of access to quality public services vital to the poor such as education, health and water and sanitation. The other dimension of poverty is the deprivation of the poor of a voice, representation and access to information. Even though corruption is multidimensional, the bottom line is that hurts the poor disproportionately.

Corruption distorts the poor’s view and trust for public officials, the police and people in authority who extort bribes from them. There is no better environment for corruption to succeed than in one where power of individual member of society is measured in terms of access to people in power and where financial resources supersedes the rule of law. The poor can therefore never get far in such a society because they lack power, thus opportunity. Because of their defencelessness, unlike the powerful, they cannot use corruption in their favour. It is from this point of view that the majority of Kenyans see the emerging corruption. They feel helpless and unable to do anything about officials whom they elected to be the guardians of the state coffers. To them, the slow pace of investigation of matters on corruption in high places, the inane denials, contradictions and hesitation of the government to take any action against the alleged culprits is a real let down, especially from a government elected on a platform of radical reform. Such excess only impedes growth, distorts public expenditure allocation and in more than one way hinder the alleviation of poverty.

The most obvious form of corruption in Kenya is petty corruption for the provision of public services. The money slipped to the bureaucrat for the issuance of a new identity card, the unofficial payment to get a family member tuberculosis medicine which should be distributed free of charge at the hospital, or the occasional bribe to the policeman to avoid harassment. Society at large is affected by this kind of corruption but the most hit are the weaker ones, the poor. An analysis would probably reveal that the poor pay a larger percentage of their income to bribes than the rich for they are dependent more on public services. The poor and powerless cannot take their children to expensive private schools or hospital and are therefore more vulnerable to extortion.

Economic burden is added on the poor and the unborn on daily basis by using foreign aid to fill private pockets than intended projects. On this count, only an insane person would have problems with the British ambassadors, Mr. Clay’s strong worded statement about graft. The colour of his language may not have been diplomatic but it was a non exaggerated and accurate depiction of what is going on. For he is hurt that his hard earned tax money which he gives Kenya through grants to alleviate poverty ends up lining the pockets of a few individuals.
The effects of the various faces of corruption are not merely financial. They may also be profoundly economic, moral, and social. If medicine or maize in a government aided project disappears it erodes poor people’s relationship with their community leaders and government officials. If a policeman or teacher takes advantage of his position to extract bribes, it harms their reputation and relationship of trust, destroying social capital and decreasing moral standards. Corruption becomes a way of getting things done eventually eroding the rule of law. The Kenyan government has promised to do something about the Anglo Leasing Scandal; it’s only that nobody believes it. It has become apparent to the people that this administration is better at empty rhetoric than action. They therefore feel cheated; it’s for this reason that Mr Clay’s criticism is music to their ears and a total embarrassment for Kibaki government. If not checked the corruption will become a way of earning a living. Bribing in Kenya has become a habit which has over time made people lazy in following correct procedures, because after all problems can be solved by way of bribe and sometimes blunt thievery.

One form of corruption arises due to discrepancies of power between public officials who have control over a goods or services and the poor who lack education, knowledge, access to information, the financial resources as well as good connections. The poor are dependent on public officials which explain why they are hesitant to speak up about corruption cases.
Proper legal representation is something that poor just dream of because it is very costly. These people, cannot, therefore, sue persons who demand bribes from them. In worst cases a magistrate or a judge has to be bribed for ones case to see the light of day. In Kenya, justice has become a commodity sold to the highest bidder, much to the advantage of the rich and powerful who have virtually no limits imposed on their actions.

Corruption and poverty are linked through many indirect channels. On a macro level, corruption has implications for a country’s ability to attract investment, for the effectiveness of its institutions, for income generation through taxation and hence in the end for economic growth and poverty alleviation.

Kenyans have experience with many projects which due to corruption are left half finished or finished but lying in ruin due to lack of maintenance. This is because it is more lucrative to spend on new projects, thereby, leaving existing roads, hospitals and other public infrastructure to decay. Lack of precision in public expenditure planning can create opportunities for corruption and diversion of funds. At the same time, clearly allocated expenditures may never reach the intended recipients – a major source of deprivation to poor people. While this corruption hurts society in general it hurts the poor most since they are more vulnerable and dependent on the quality of governance and state support. That’s why the so called “new corruption” is on the lips of all Kenyans. It is what they want stumped out once and for all.

There are therefore various ways in which inequality and corruption interlink. It is for this very reason that Kenyans are asking Kibakis government to pull up its socks and clean up its act. The truth is that there is no single factor which has hurt Kenya more than corruption. Most Kenyans don’t even remember the names of individual government officials who embezzled money during presidents the past two regimes. But people still remember the two presidents and their kind of government. I’m sure that Kibaki would like to be remembered as the president who exterminated corruption or reduced it drastically and not who did nothing to stop the vice. If the obvious and cheap cover up continues, I’m afraid the wanainchi will revert to singing the song yote yawezekana bila Moi. Only this time they will mean that all including corruption is now possible without Moi.

By Ujiji Ujiji