How Mafia-Like Bureaucratic Cartels or Thieves in Suits Run Corruption Inside the Bureaucracy, or How Government Officials Swindle Citizens in Kenya!

ABSTRACT

As typical of many developing contexts, Kenyans know how most civil servants make an honest living out of public monies – in other words, there is generally nothing wrong with making a living, legal or otherwise, from where one works. But this situation can be more complex than that. Bureaucratic corruption is more about bureaucratic structure and culture (how things are done here), as well as the bureaucracy’s sociopolitical environments. Most importantly, variables relating to bureaucracy’s political outliers show that bureaucratic corruption can also be a tool of regime consolidation, a space of elite struggle for rewards and control. The result is that, a mafia-like white-collar corruption syndicate (cartels) and isolated corrupt practices emerge at all levels and sectors to enforce corruption and swindle citizens through unscrupulous bureaucratic processes. These cartels employ an assortment of enforcement tools to achieve their goals, from exercising official investigations to bribery, kickbacks, threats and murder. Using a multi-dimensional administrative rituals approach, this paper is a modest attempt to understand how these factors produce bureaucratic gray areas that rationalize and institutionalizes corruption and cartel activities. While the solution primarily lies with the political leadership, this cannot happen unless a civil society, instead of the opposition parties-led citizen movement, is reinvigorated in Kenya.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Thieves in Suits was used by some respondents to describe cartel operators’ ‘accomplished financial status’ or corporate outlook, connoting their expensive suits and cars that a civil servant’s salary can hardly afford.

² Also see the interview by the Dutch Newspaper on 13 January 2016 of Willy Mitunga, the then Kenya’s Chief Justice: Kenya is run by mafia-style cartels, says chief justice, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/13/kenya-is-run-by-mafia-style-cartels-says-chief-justice, retrieved on 7 August 2023

³ See, President Ruto says he will lead “ruthless” war against corruption in Kenya https://nation.africa/kenya/news/president-ruto-says-he-will-lead-ruthless-war-against-corruption-in-kenya-4240580, retrieved on 11/08/2023

⁴ See, e.g., DP Ruto: Uhuru looked the other way as corruption thrived in Jubilee, https://nation.africa/kenya/news/politics/dp-ruto-uhuru-looked-the-other-way-as-corruption-thrived-in-jubilee-3846678, retrieved on 11/08/2023

⁵ See, Court upholds transfer of Kerra manager in Sh264 million questionable wealth probe https://nation.africa/kenya/news/court-upholds-transfer-of-kerra-manager-in-sh264-million-questionable-wealth-probe–3813390, retrieved on 08 August 2023

⁶ ibid.

⁷ Lands ministry cannot be trusted to secure records, says judge; https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001351644/ministry-cannot-be-trusted-to-secure-records-says-judge retrieved on 07 August 2023

⁸ See, How the Ndegwa Report brought riches to public service, https://nation.africa/kenya/blogs-opinion/blogs/dot9/bankelele/how-the-ndegwa-report-brought-riches-to-public-service-352514 retrieved on 12/08/2023

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gedion Onyango

Gedion Onyango is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of Nairobi, Kenya and a Researcher at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, The London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom.