Why Tone At The Top is Key in Fighting Corruption in Kenya

Kenya is presently in a grip of massive corruption scandals. Everyday there is news of a new scandal, with the amounts at play growing by the day. All these scandals relate to a government agency or a government owned corporation.

While the focus has been on how much has been “stolen”, how it was stolen and by who – I think the first question we should have asked is: How could such theft of public funds happen with a functioning government and in organizations that have seemingly strong controls and a seemingly strong governance structure?. What we are learning is that appearances can be deceiving. Even with all the government bureaucracy involved and the seemingly tight controls public funds will continue to be stolen as long as we do not have the right “tone at the top”.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners refers to Tone at the Top as the ethical atmosphere that is created in the workplace by the organization's leadership. Whatever tone is set has trickle-down effect on employees of any organization. If the tone set by managers upholds ethics and integrity, employees will be more inclined to uphold those same values. However, if upper management appears unconcerned with ethics and focuses solely on the bottom line, employees will be more prone to commit fraud because they feel that ethical conduct is not a focus or priority within the organization. Employees pay close attention to the behavior and actions of their bosses, and they follow their lead. In short, employees will do what they witness their bosses doing. 

In Kenya, appointment of key managers in government owned corporations and agencies is a political process. In most cases those appointed to these positions are not the best candidates but are appointed as a reward or part of the political patronage system. Even where such processes are competitive, the process is rigged to achieve the same results. In such a case, employees will replicate the same behavior by recruiting their relatives in the organization with little consideration to competence or experience.

Because of the nature of Kenyan politics, money plays an important role in elections. It is expected that an individual appointed to key government agency must find ways of contributing to the political party that appointed him. Because the individual feels “protected” by the appointing politicians, the floodgates for corruption, bribery and other unethical practices are open.

Ultimately, if the war on graft in Kenya is to be won, the ultimate beneficiaries of corruption must be made to account. As long as politicians and the powers that be continue to flaunt their ill gotten wealth (big cars, large mansions, helicopters, lavish lifestyles etc), without consequences or care of what ordinary citizens think, the war on corruption cannot be won.

Arresting middle and junior staff in state corporations is a waste of time. newly appointed once will simply continue from where the others left. The whole system of making appointments, assigning roles and responsibilities in government agencies must change. As long as the leadership at the political level and organization level sets the wrong ethical atmosphere, the war on corruption is dead on arrival.