The exponential ranking of Kenya' on Transparency International's world corruption index since year 2000 to 2006 ,raises questions on the credibility of their annual reports.

One wonders if this is a fair and true representation of the state of affairs in the country. Could there be some underlying influences bent on denigrating the current Kenyan government?

Since its accesion to power the relationship with the anti-graft body has been a matter for glaring controversy. To rank Kenya from index rating 42 in 2000 to 142 in 2006 (with rating 145 being most the corrupt), indicates a stark 338% increase which by necessity must be attributed to some explainable cause and would be felt by a staggering majority of the citizenry.

As a common mwanachi I believe that my encounter with graft at the common level has not quadrupled in the past 5 years as the report seems to suggest. I stand to be corrected and I believe that a majority of fair minded Kenyans would agree with me on this issue.

It would be utterly ridiculous to claim that no improvement or impact has been made in the fight against corruption. Not even the staunchest die hard opposition supporter can claim that this is the case. We simply do not complain just because we have a right to complain and on this basis I fault TI's 2002 to 2006 reports.

I am not an untouched bystander in the issue of corruption; I have been a victim of it over many years like many other Kenyans. We know that there is corruption at all levels of society but the truth is there is light at the end of the tunnel and of late we have started to see glimpses of it.

Policy and Institutional Reforms
There have been a lot of policy and institutional reforms and establishment of facilitative frameworks to fight corruption initiated by the current government. These have affected the three arms of government, namely the executive, judiciary and legislature. Among these reforms are to be named: wealth declaration by members of Parliament, the enactment of the Anti Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, The Public Officers Ethics Act and Disposal and Public Procurement Act of 2005. These are positive gains that have had an impact and must be acknowledged. However the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission remains a non-performing toothless bulldog.

The Open Day of the Judiciary to the public last month marked a remarkable change from past experiences whereby the law courts pictured dark dungeons for Justice to hire with judges serving as the priesthood to corruption. We have seen a purge on allegedly corrupt magistrates and judges, the expansion of the judiciary with new judges and magistrates being appointed from legal academia, advocates of many years standing and judicial officers of known repute.

Time and again we have seen corrupt police officers, parastatal bosses and public officials being hounded to the law courts for receiving bribes. Handling of files and procedures of operations at the Lands Ministry have been checkered. Introduction of electronic tax machines while improving tax revenue collection is also reducing tax evasion and fraud, due to permanent records obtained. The effects of these reforms cannot be ignored in the least if fairness is to be observed.

Rather than heighten our interest in the gallopping rate of corruption, we conversely raise serious issues as to the methodology, partiality and level of objectivity employed in compiling data and arriving at the indices in the report. For only a lack in these areas could result in such an unfair appraisal.

However we wait to see whether with the exit of the so-viewed government unfriendly directors of the local TI chapter there will be a more realistic or biased report this year.

While we severely criticize the lackadaisical manner and tribal bigotry in the way that the government has handled high level grand corruption in the recent years, on the other hand we have witnessed some improvement in the government's attempt to curtail and control corruption in both public and private society as compared to the past regime. But we must state the government must do more to stem the systemic spread and incubation of corruption especially among top government officials, nepotistic and politically correct business elites. Their performance has been dismal but positive attempts have been made.

This notwithstanding, the annual TI report faults not only the will of the government, but also of the Kenyan people in their attempt to uproot the almost endemic corruption. Thus, in fair recognition of the gains made - will the real Kenyan PLEASE STAND UP against this negative inferences and soldier on in the fight against corruption!