Why Kagame should be East Africa’s President

By Peter Wanyonyi Posted : Nov 4, 2011

Kenya must surely be in a good place corruption-wise.

A survey by the East African chapter of Transparency International found that Ugandan police were the most corrupt in East Africa.

The report is almost unbelievable — unless you are a Kenyan politician, in which case you can point out that your East African colleagues are eating more of their CDF funds than you are.

That, surely, ought to count for something when you eventually show up in court, as you certainly will.

But first, the report’s results.

Burundi, it turns out, is the most rotten country in East Africa.

Everything is to be had in the tiny country — for an official price and an under-the-table deal-clincher, of course.

The Burundi Police, apparently, are the sleaziest cops anywhere in the region.

Kenya, incredibly, doesn’t even come next.

That honour goes to Uganda. The banana people have been learning fast and they have the results to show for it.

Oil has just been discovered in Uganda, and where that thick, black stuff is found, money illegally changes hands incredibly fast.

The country’s Prime Minister is facing a lynch mob for tinkering with oil revenue but he maintains his innocence and has not been charged with any offence.

Sliding in next as the third most corrupt country in East Africa is… not Kenya, but Tanzania.

In that polite country, women, it was found out, were more likely to be on the receiving end of demands for bribes than men.

In addition, a relatively small number of those who bribe reported the crime — suggesting they did not really trust their police force to take any such reports seriously.

Demanding a goat

Tanzanians will be complaining about this bribery index because Kenya shows up a lowly fourth, just above squeaky-clean Rwanda.

But rankings can be deceptive.

Whereas Kenya’s bribery prevalence is a staggering 28 per cent, Rwanda’s is merely five per cent — perhaps just one incidence of a village chief demanding to be given a goat.

Kenyans who read the bribery index will wonder, cynically, just how much the Government paid Transparency International to rank us so low.

They will turn around and remember that, just last evening, at the road block heading home, some traffic cop extorted a bribe because, on checking their driving license, he (it’s always a he that comes to look at your license) noted that the renewal receipt in the license was not signed, a massive crime on Kenyan roads.

It could even cause accidents, that missing signature.

And they will also look with envy at tiny Rwanda, where the regime does not tolerate sleaze, rubbish is collected regularly, the economy is booming, and water and electricity exist in places where there should.

Surely, if ever there was a person to be president of East Africa, shouldn’t Kagame be that man?

Source: Standard

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