THE PRIORITIZATION OF THE THREE-PRONGED ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY IN NAIROBI COUNTY, KENYA (2003-2011)

Corruption still remains one of the major obstacles affecting both political and socio-economic development in the developing countries, Kenya included. In an effort to combat it, the Government of Kenya enacted the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crime Act in 2003. This legislative framework laid the foundation of the three-pronged anti-corruption strategy in the fight against corruption in the Country. Despite the adoption of the strategy, the levels of corruption in Nairobi County have remained high. This is evidenced by the findings of this study and other corruption perception surveys which have indicated the same. Weber postulates that corruption in bureaucratic step-up partly occurs when members of a society or organization misuse authority to justify their corrupt behaviour. Similarly, the Principal-Agent-Client model elucidates that corruption crop up when the agent misuse power and authority to engage in corrupt behavior to the detriment of the principal. This study examined and evaluated the implementation of the three-pronged anti-corruption strategy in the County in the period between 2003 and 2011. The study sought to establish among other things how the strategy’s component prongs namely; Investigation, Prevention and Civic Education ought to be prioritized for the effective reduction of corruption in the County. The study was conducted in Nairobi County because it houses the Capital City of Kenya thus providing the requisite population given its cosmopolitan and metropolitan nature. Further, it is also the centre of most of the public and private entities. The researcher adopted a mixed study design involving both quantitative and qualitative methods which involved collecting and analyzing data from both primary and secondary sources. Thereafter the findings, discussions and recommendations were made.