Normalization Of Political Corruption In Africa With Special Reference To Kenya

Abstract

Since African countries’ independence, the perception of political corruption has remained widespread despite government reforms that have included adopting constitutional, legislative and institutional anticorruption frameworks. This study set out to investigate underlying factors that may have entrenched and permitted political corruption to thrive into its pervasive and enduring nature. The study had several assumptions: a) that factors enabling political corruption to thrive seem to be linked to a phenomenon uniformly experienced across the continent; b) that colonialism is likely that shared experience across Africa; c) that some aspects of colonial legacies in Africa may be the factors facilitating the never-ending political corruption in Africa; and d) that study findings on political corruption in a formerly colonized country such as Kenya, can be writ large in Africa. The study had the following objectives: a) to investigate whether the widespread perception of political corruption in Africa can be traced to colonialism; b) to explore possible factors for the entrenchment of political corruption in governments and if there exist deliberate processes to forge new norms that subvert anticorruption efforts; and, c) to investigate the possible link between the colonial experience and the apparent perception of tolerance of political corruption in Kenya. The study’s objectives were pursued through conceptual analysis applying Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci’s cultural hegemony which proposes that there is often the overt or subtle imposition of the ruling cl ass’ worldview, and it’s embodying economic and social structures, as being legitimate, normal and just for the benefit of all, despite those structures only benefiting the ruling class. Through philosophical speculation and argumentation the study arrived at findings that included: a) colonial hegemony entrenched a virulent form of political corruption in Africa as public office was transformed into a platform for power relation, advancement and protection of individual and class interests; b) the postcolonial political class in African countries such as Kenya, use their proximity to state power to dominate the economy, corruptly acquire wealth and increase their domination of African societies; c) there has never been any real political transition in African countries since the colonial era and therefore, colonial extractivist ideology and structures remain intact on the continent; d) that in normalizing corruption, perpetrators in Africa deploy three mutually self-reinforcing hegemonic processes, namely, rationalization, where corruption perpetrators develop self-serving ideologies to justify and perhaps even glorify corrupt acts; institutionalization, where initial corrupt acts become embedded in the state structures and processes, becoming part of routine in service delivery; and socialization, where newcomers into the political class are imparted with self-serving bias and norms that fortify group-think and also induce them to view political corruption as permissible and desirable. The study recommends acknowledgement that the persistent perception of political corruption is an aspect of colonial legacy in Africa, and therefore to effectively discourage the vice, anticorruption frameworks ought to incorporate counter-hegemony ideas to dismantle these aspects of colonial holdovers.