We need to re-evaluate our value system to win the war against corruption

In January this year, the Multisectoral Initiative Against Corruption organised the first ever National Anti- Corruption Conference at the Bomas of Kenya. The Conference which brought together the private sector, religious leaders, civil society, women, youth, media and professionals reflected upon and defined a sustained movement against corruption. Indeed, corruption is presently one of the major challenges facing the world and has been identified as the single-most threat to human existence and relationship leading some commentators to call for its recognition as a crime against humanity.

In particular, corruption has been identified as the main obstacle to the realisation of good governance and human development goals. According to the World Bank, corruption exacerbates poverty especially in countries struggling to achieve meaningful economic growth and undermines the ability of the government to deliver services to the people. In the context of constitutionalism, corruption is the antithesis of the rule of law and administration of justice. It is a threat to democracy in that it saps the legitimacy and erodes trust in government. It also weakens accountability and transparency of state officers and institutions.

Corruption has equally eroded the moral values of Kenyans and is consigning many Kenyans to perpetual poverty, deprivation and misery and has permeated into the very fabric of the Kenyan society from the top political echelons, public service and to the family unit.

In the recent past, Kenya has witnessed a reenergised efforts to address the widespread scourge of corruption. This has included a number of convictions where the courts have imposed stiffer penalties on the accused persons, prosecution of high-profile individuals, relatively swift investigations especially by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, tracing and preservation of alleged corruptly acquired wealth pending the recovery proceedings. In spite of the foregoing, especially in terms of setting up the requisite frameworks and processes, winning the fight against corruption is still a herculean task. The National Anti- Corruption Conference, provided an opportunity for each institution to take stock on the progress and challenges experience in the fight against corruption and to make a commitment on the role they will play towards eliminating the vice.

As the institutions charged with investigations and prosecution of corruption continue to do their work, there is need for us to reflect on our values as a society and how we can help in this fight. Societies exists for the common good and aiming at the common good is a uniquely moral motive because it is grounded on collective wellbeing. It is opposed to the concern by each person’s own self-interests, needs and their immediate satisfaction. Corruption does undermine common good and manifests itself in various forms in the Kenyan society like favouritism, abuse of office and power, vote buying, looting, misappropriation, nepotism, extortion, embezzlement, cronyism, bribery among many others.

An individual is always guided by the value system and several factors often collectively play important role in forming the value system of a person, such as family background, education, experiences, desires, greed, ambitions among others. People with strong value system remain immune to the most corrupt surroundings and on the other hand a degenerated person would find out the possibility to swindle everywhere irrespective of the amount involved. Individuals with strong value system irrespective of the environment and the circumstance are likely to remain upright and no pressure, opportunity or rationalisation can corrupt that person.

There is also need to embrace moral empowerment, civic education, genuine democratic governance and whistle blowing as important avenues for fighting corruption. In addition, each person ought to take responsibility for their own actions as opposed to hiding in our ethnic cocoons so as to be shielded from justice.

Additionally, there is need for the introduction of values education in the curricula of the various levels of education, in order to win the fight against corruption in the country, our schools, colleges, learning centres and institutions of higher learning have an extremely important role to play in supporting the development of our value system and in establishing the generation of the ethical fibre of our society. The war against corruption cannot succeed if we have accepted corruption as a way of life. Indeed, legislation alone cannot win the war on corruption, therefore, we need to inculcate in society the right moral values and principles, with character education from childhood to adulthood, so that we have moral persons of good character who are able to resolve moral dilemmas. Additionally, the public awareness of the evils of corruption and its implications on the economic and social structures of society must be aroused. Intensive educational programmes should be put in place to sensitise people about evils of corruption; to instill a sense of criticality and duty in them so as to appreciate the need to eliminate corruption.