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According to a new survey conducted by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the three most bribe-prone public institutions are the traffic police, the county health department, and regular police.
According to the 2023 National Ethics and Corruption Survey, there is a 1.45 percent chance of being asked for a bribe each time a service is requested at the traffic police department.
The prevalence rates for the county health department and regular police are 1.05 and 1.02 times, respectively.
The county education departments and the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) were found to be among the most likely places to be approached for a bribe.
In terms of specific services, the integrity watchdog discovered that seeking police security services is more likely to result in a bribe request. This was followed by attempting to bail out an arrested person and reporting a crime or making a statement.
Other government services where bribes are common include driving tests, business registration, and applying for a Teachers Service Commission (TSC) number.
The services that are least likely to require a bribe include obtaining a visa, obtaining a water connection, and obtaining a death certificate.
Respondents interviewed by EACC stated that they paid a bribe every time they went to a government office to register a business, apply for a TSC number, seek relief food or water, obtain a tender, or register or transfer a vehicle.
The same was true for the collection of building or construction certificates, educational services, driver's licences, CDF funds, agricultural extension services, and transferring a student from one school to another.
“Impact of bribery on service delivery is more evident in an application for TSC number, seeking relief food, registration or transfer of a vehicle, collection of a construction certificate, seeking a driving license, seeking CDF funds and seeking agricultural extension services,” EACC said.
“Each time a person paid a bribe for these services, they were more likely to receive the service than if they did not pay the bribe.”
The report further recorded an increase in the national average bribe from Ksh.6,865 in 2022 to Ksh.11,625 in 2023.
Across various services, the highest average bribes are in seeking employment (Ksh.163,260), application for a passport (Ksh.74,428) and seeking a police abstract (Ksh.20,300).
On average, respondents paid the largest bribes to access services in the National Transport and Safety Authority (Ksh.81,801), followed by the Judiciary (Ksh.49,611), the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) (Ksh.40,000) and county government offices (Ksh.26,223).
Overall, passport applications account for the largest share of bribes paid nationally (35.8%);, followed by seeking employment (22.1%), seeking a police abstract (11.5%) and bailing of arrested individuals (10.3%), EACC said.
The anti-graft government agency surveyed a sample size of 5,100 individuals. Data collection was conducted from October 13 to November 4, 2023.