A new corruption perception index by Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) has shown that Kenyan courts are among top five most corrupt institutions.
The report released Tuesday ranked courts the fifth on the graft perception index in the 2018 National Corruption Survey at 8.6 per cent.
The police, Kenya Power, National Hospital Insurance Fund and National Youth Service topped the chart at 39.6%, 12.9%, 11.1% and 9.5% respectively.
While releasing the report, EACC Director of Preventive Services Vincent Okongo said National Lands Commission was also in the list of the most corrupt at 8.1%. Kenya Revenue Authority followed at 6.8%.
Okongo further stated that the average bribe paid dropped from Sh5,058.75 in the 2017 survey to Sh3,833.14 in 2018 this figure being the lowest recorded since 2012.
“We noticed that the number of Kenyans who seek government services has increased and that is a good gesture and also the amount paid for bribe reduced and we hope as times passes, people will not continue to pay bribe to acquire services,” he said.
5,942 who were interviewed during the survey for the period between November 16 to December 19 last year, corruption for the second year running topped the list of major challenges facing the country at 49.4 per cent, followed by unemployment at 36.8%, famine 27.2%, high cost of living at 16.9% and unfavorable economic conditions at 11%.
Comparatively perceptions about levels of corruption have significantly been declining from 2016 at 79.3 per cent which was the peak recorded to 63.3% documented in 2018.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Registrar of persons and public hospitals were ranked the most corruption prone.
The two were ranked first and second at 19.9% and 19.7%.
EACC Chairperson Eliud Wabukala urged Kenyans to exercise patience in a bid to fight the urge of wanting to bribe or be bribed all in an effort to fight corruption in the country.
“The statistics have indeed shown that Kenyans are not patient. My advice to them is that if we are to win this war, we need to have patience. No one should be bribed to offer you a government service because you have already paid tax. Let us focus on being genuine citizen because a service to man is a service to God,” he urged.