Kenya most corrupt in east Africa, bribe poll shows

By Wangui Kanina

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya is east Africa's most graft-prone nation with a bribe expected or solicited in nearly half of all transactions, according to a survey by an anti-graft watchdog published on Thursday, followed by Uganda and Tanzania.

Kenya's police force was the most corrupt public institution with 66.5 percent bribery rate, the inaugural East Africa Bribery Index showed.

The index focused on seven bribery indicators: likelihood of encountering bribery, the prevalence, severity, frequency and impact of bribery, the average size of the bribe and the contribution of bribery to an organisation's income.

Measured on those criteria, Kenya's overall bribery rate was 45 percent, Uganda's 35 percent and Tanzania's 17 percent.

The survey was commissioned by the Kenya division of Transparency International (TI), which has been publishing a separate bribery index for Kenya since 2002.

"The ranking of key public service delivery agencies ... shows that the public service in east Africa is riddled with corruption," said Job Ogonda, the group's executive director.

Corruption and red tape were cited as a headache by east African corporate bosses in a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers published in April.

The World Bank says higher costs for businesses due to corruption, as well as poor infrastructure or insecurity, are "invisible costs" that can hit competitivity with other regions in the world.