Dear Mr. President.

28th February 2016

Your Excellency,
RE: THE CORRUPTION NIGHTMARE
I hope this letter finds you well.
I am a peace loving and law abiding citizen of Kenya. I love Kenya with every fiber of my being.
It is home. I believe you do too. Your name hosts our countrys name in it. You dont have to
convince me how much you love our beloved mother land.
I do not have children yet. But I do want to start a family someday. This letter, is motivated by
my unconceived children. There may be no country for them by the time they get here. This
makes my heart bleed. I could choose to be silent and debate contents of this letter in social
facilities with my friends and be limited to140 characters on Social Media. But I choose to speak
out.
At this juncture, I would like to state that I am neither a political activist nor do I have any
political aspirations. I write this as a citizen of our beloved Kenya.
I will confess, you were not my preferred presidential candidate of choice in the 2013 General
Elections. However, when you were sworn in as the President of the Republic of Kenya, I
respected the decision by majority of Kenyans. They entrusted you to lead our beloved country
and I made my peace with it and I made a conscious decision to respect you as our head of state.
You are a symbol of national unity.
Your first days in power gave me a ray of hope for a greater Kenya. This ray has dimmed over
the years of your tenure. Reason- corruption. You are aware of this and its probably giving you
sleepless nights. I dont intend to give you more sleepless nights but to maybe offer a solution.
Since I am being honest, I will confess that I have paid a bribe too. It was for a traffic offence. It
was 8PM on a Friday heading towards Serena Hotel from Processional Way. I did not see the
sign that says no entry beyond this point as the area is not well lit. Road Markings did not come
to my aid either. The road was marked with a yellow broken line which only solidified closer to
the junction to join Kenyatta Avenue. From my drivers lessons, yellow lines signify two-way
traffic. So why does the signage and the road markings differ? There were two policemen and a
senior police waiting for bait in this area. It is a cash cow.
My options were to go to the police station and spend the weekend in a police cell for this
offence for prosecution for the traffic offence on Monday or pay a bribe. I have never been in
court but I have heard its a nightmare. If I am absent from work my pay is deducted. It was
therefore convenient for me to part with Ksh 2000.00 for the issue to go away.

One of the biggest drivers of corruption in this country is simply; the system doesnt work. In
my case for instance, if my fine was to be paid on the spot, this would have been revenue that
would have contributed to have the road marked appropriately.
As for the justice system, I would have probably spent minimum of a week to have my offence
resolved. If I was to follow the system to the letter as is right to, then I would probably lose my
job due to persistent absenteeism.
Critical to winning the war on corruption is fixing the system. Credit where its due Mr. president,
huduma centres are one great story. Easy to renew my license and passport with a few clicks.
Awesome! Can the same extend across all national and county governments? Automation to
make service delivery efficient will be your saving grace.
Another major contributor to corruption, is plain greed. We are a society that is tolerant of greed
Mr. President. This is why this corruption problem will move on from generation to generation.
Who will break the chain? I dont intend to just complain but I hope to offer suggestions as
practical solutions to this perennial problem.
When HIV/ AIDS was declared a national disaster, a lot of effort was given to it to fight the
disease. Success has been achieved as we have seen reduced infection rates in recent years. This
is where I think we can borrow something to fight the vice of corruption;
Declaring Corruption as a national disaster: This means that fighting corruption will be
dedicated as a national activity through various institutions. It should be driven by EACC.
Anti-bribery and corruption policy: It should be mandatory for every institution, organization,
religious centers, political parties to have an anti - bribery and corruption policy that clearly
spells out their integrity values, the person responsible for enforcing the policy and what
consequences are there should one be found in violation of this policy. This policy can be
overseen by EACC which is mandated to promote integrity.
Stakeholder engagement: Solutions to this problem lie with the people. Involve as many
stakeholders to come up with long term solutions to the problem. Religious bodies would like to
be involved but there doesnt seem to be an avenue to impact on the war on corruption.
Political Parties constitutions: The political parties must include consequences for their
members involvement in corrupt activities. In addition to this, particularly presidential and
gubernatorial candidates MUST include their ANTI CORRUPTION Pledge in their manifestos
so that we the citizens can hold them accountable.
Curriculum inclusion: The academic curriculum Must include ills of corruption across
throughout the 8-4-4 system. This is where a mind shift will happen. And hopefully the chain
will break. This responsibility can lie with the ministry of education.

Elimination of Conflict of Interest: There is an institution charged with the responsibility of

oversighting public procurement, PPOA, can this body be charged with the responsibility of
eliminating conflict of interest across all government institutions? How can a politician who is
employed by the people of Kenya be a supplier to the Government? Is isnt this how they
influence tender committees, inflate prices, get paid for undelivered goods. This chain needs to
be broken. The procurement officers also need to do some due diligence on suppliers so that
those listed as directors are authentic.
The Judiciary: Though this is an independent arm, you do have a direct link to it and for the war
to be worn , the judiciary has to be effective and efficient in prosecuting corrupt individuals and
institutions. You can drive this with the help of the Attorney General, the Legal Advisor and the
President of the Judiciary The chief justice.
Fortunately, the Constitution of Kenya laid the foundation for institutions to oversight each
other. The institutions to make my suggestions applicable are there. I do admit though that some
legislative adjustments have to be made.
I could go on and on. However, I feel these are practical beginnings to winning this war on
corruption. Will Kenya be the Guinea pig to the world that fought the war on corruption and
won?

Yours sincerely,
Catherine W. Nderu
A citizen of Kenya