Senior Lecturer Dr. Antoinette Kankindi of the Strathmore Law School and a Research Fellow, at its Integrity Program’s research, was recently published by Inuka Kenya. The article seeks to decipher the topic of corruption in Africa.

Nairobi, Kenya – The contemporary culture presents many paradoxes. It is an era of massive, constant information bombardment that is also at the same time an era of great complacency and conformity, at least when it comes to devising the fundamental tenets of a justly ordered society.

We are witnessing unprecedented strides in wealth creation and, at the same time, deepening socio-economic disparity. It is an era of democratic advance being enriched with an ever expanding human-rights’ discourse and, at the same time, an era of populism, unprecedented human-rights abuses and the corrosion of the very idea of democracy. It is a time when governance is supplanting government to enhance the rule of law and lead to prosperity, yet corruption seems to undermine all three from different angles.

It is an era of democratic advance being enriched with an ever expanding human-rights’ discourse and, at the same time, an era of populism, unprecedented human-rights abuses and the corrosion of the very idea of democracy. It is a time when governance is supplanting government to enhance the rule of law and lead to prosperity, yet corruption seems to undermine all three from different angles

The list is long and each paradox deserves individual treatment, should there be any chance of overcoming the ignorance underlining all of them. What is certain is that the last paradox mentioned is the theme under examination. Corruption has, indeed, become a monster.

LOOKING FOR A DISRUPTIVE ST GEORGE

The disheartening situation at hand is that incredible resources have been invested in fighting this monster, in many parts of the world, with inconsequential and at times negative results. Indeed, it is puzzling to observe the rise and the fall of such big constructs as the whole idea of transparency with its cohort of institutional mechanisms to fight corruption; its claims to inspire reforms targeting the most corrupts spheres of public life etc. This concept has come to suffer the same fate as the one of ‘Codes of Ethics,’ with its ‘ethics officers’ in all manner of organizations. None of these has had any significant effect on the monster. So do human societies have what it takes to slay the monster? Plato once he said we are like people looking for something they have in their hands all the time; so perhaps we’re looking in all directions except at the thing we want, which is probably why we haven’t found it.

Contrary to what the proponents of activism believe, true change, or revolution as it used to be called a long time ago, does not come from activism; it is not generated in the political arena. It originates in ideas, challenging other ideas. It would be difficult to think of the French Revolution without its Enlightenment thinkers, in the same way as it would be difficult to conceive the Russian Revolution without Karl Marx

At a time that glorifies disruption, the fight against corruption calls for a status quo-disruption campaigns on different fronts, questioning fundamental pillars of the existing failed solutions to the problem. It is a matter of human dignity to disentangle the intellectual inconsistencies driving the dysfunctional dynamics at play today. The endeavour requires character and principles. It is imperative to start by acknowledging that, contrary to what the proponents of activism believe, true change, or revolution as it used to be called a long time ago, does not come from activism; it is not generated in the political arena. It originates in ideas, challenging other ideas. It would be difficult to think of the French Revolution without its Enlightenment thinkers, in the same way as it would be difficult to conceive the Russian Revolution without Karl Marx.

As a first step to finding solutions, which ideas need challenging in the African context, which is already inextricably linked to the global context?

1. A conceptual framework that can put the problem of corruption into perspective should,first, include a dialogue based upon the natural structure of society, which in fact, responds to man’s being. A brief description following Prof Alvira’s idea of society’s sub-systems[1]would help. At the very basic level of society, there is the economic structure, always driven by the simple fact of survival. The complexity of relations and transactions brought about by economic activity calls for a regulated order, bringing into being the next sub-system, which is law. By its very nature, law requires the immediate social sub-system to allow its possible implementation and enforcement – and that is the realm of politics. However, political action being a human action is likely to need the next sub-system, which is ethics, in order to ensure that the purpose of politics remains the common good and not any other purpose. The last sphere required to complete the natural structure of society would be religion,in which a distinction between what is truly good as opposed to what is intrinsically evil finds an ultimate backing. The reason why the conceptual framework of a social order must be at the centre of the dialogue is that these spheres of society are articulated in a rational order, to the point that when one takes the place of the other, the structures of society become incapable of achieving society’s purpose. This situation breeds corruption. It shows today when we see how economy takes precedence over law or politics; or when law takes the place of ethics. An examination of why the fight against corruption has failed cannot be successful unless it captures the subversion of Africa’s social sub-systems, including its culture. Such an examination would be also expected to revisit the interference of global players in introducing dysfunctional dynamics.

The brutal colonial systems had made systematically sure that no ‘prior legality’ subsisted. This meant that the new social order had no local foundation upon which it could be built, since there were neither traditional African institutions nor African ideals that could serve the purpose. Second, it is widely understood today that Independence was accorded to African countries only in appearance, while unofficially systems of chronic dependence were put in place simultaneously.

 

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