[Global corruption report 2001 ] East and east-central africa

Abstract

War, civil strife and instability mar much of East and East-Central Africa’s landscape, with Africa’s ‘first world war’ in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), state collapse in Somalia, ethnic conflict in Burundi and civil war in Sudan. Ethiopia and Eritrea have just concluded a brief but bloody war. These conflicts each present opportunities for personal profiteering by military factions and elites, and threaten prospects for accountable and stable governance. Levels of development are uneven and poverty high, with around 30 per cent of people living on less than US $1 per day.1 Corruption is a prominent feature of daily public life even in the region’s more peaceful countries, and imposes high costs both at the local and national levels. While data is limited, the Kenyan government is thought to have lost more than Ksh475 billion (US $6 billion) through corruption between 1991–97.2 The country is now facing a credit squeeze from its foreign lenders, directly related to perceptions of institutionalised corruption. The NGO Uganda Debt Network estimated that Uganda lost the equivalent of US $500 million to corruption over the last five years.3 Economies are dependent on foreign aid, much of which is paid out again to service crippling foreign debt.4 Donors have largely shaped blueprints for privatisation and economic reform. But the trend of liberalisation that swept the region in the post-Cold War era, though designed to accelerate development and enhance governance, has presented its own opportunities for corruption. Anti-corruption initiatives have largely been driven by donor conditionalities. Though national institutions and laws to tackle corruption are now in place in many countries, their achievements remain limited. A relatively free press and growing civil society activism over corruption have helped to expose graft in some countries, but there is an urgent need for careful reforms that are appropriate to the economic capacity and needs of the region. Governments and foreign actors alike must show themselves determined to execute reform and stamp out corruption, if its burden on development is to be reduced.