02 September 2009
“This is an example of how money provided by central government for local development projects is sometimes wasted,” explains Onyango Nyakoni, the regional coordinator for the National Taxpayers Association in Kenya’s Rift Valley province, as he points to two unfinished classrooms, one of which still lacks a roof and windows.
Just beyond the school is a site where a cattle dip should be. “As you can see,” says Nyakoni, waving his arms over a bare field, “there is nothing here, even though 150,000 shillings were released to build the dip. This is what we call a ghost project.” He suspects the money has been embezzled.
Shocking findings
A few hundred yards away, near a patch of malarial swampland, there is another new building, also incomplete: a health centre through whose doors not a single patient has passed.
Between them, these buildings provide physical evidence of corruption, mismanagement and incompetence, and they tell a story that is well known across Kenya. All of them were funded by the taxpayer.
Thanks to research carried out by Nyakoni and his colleagues and supported by DFID, Kenyan citizens are now getting a clear – and sometimes shocking – idea of precisely how their taxes are being spent.
In 2008, Nyakoni set out to visit development projects in his region funded by taxpayers’ money. He talked to those involved – local residents, school management committees, councillors, construction workers – and gave each project a ranking, ranging from “well-built” to “ghost project”.
Seven other regional coordinators conducted similar research elsewhere in Kenya and by the end of the year the NTA had produced reports on 39 development funds. In every area investigated, a certain amount of public money was mismanaged or stolen.
Under the microscope
Part of the blame can be directed at MPs, says Nyakoni. “Some use the funds as a campaigning tool. During the last parliament some local MPs appointed relatives to chair (funding) committees and paid them salaries.” Encouragingly, the public took note and Nyakoni believes that several MPs lost their seats during the 2007 elections as a result.
“We want MPs to know that we're watching what they do,” says Michael Otieno Oloo, the NTA’s national coordinator.
The NTA is currently expanding its operations. In 2009, it will put a further 40 funds under the accountability microscope and make the ensuing reports publicly available. The more Kenya's people know about the way their taxes are spent, the less likely corrupt officials are to misuse them.
Facts and stats
- The National Taxpayers Association was set up in 2006 by the Centre for Governance and Development (CGD) and its civil society partners.
- DFID is committed to providing long-term support to the NTA’s monitoring of government spending, contributing £200,000 between September 2007 and March 2008.
- DFID has provided support for a range of organisations which campaign against corruption in Kenya, including the Media Analysis and Research Services (MARS) Group, which has produced and made publicly available a series of reports on major corruption scandals.
- In Kenya, corruption continues to undermine democracy and prevents millions of people from rising out of poverty. According to Transparency International’s latest Perceptions of Corruption table, Kenya ranks 147th out of 180 countries.