Anticorruption agencies and external donors in Post Independance Kenya
Date
2007-02-21T12:25:22Z
Authors
Kimathi, Mwarania Susan
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Abstract
Governance reform in Africa has attracted both local and international attention. African
initiatives, such as NEPAD and African Union, have endorsed good governance as a
precondition for Africa’s emancipation from poverty while the international community
has appreciated the need for well-governed proactive states in Africa in place of
minimalist view that donors promoted with structural adjustment programmes. Donors’
proactive view of states led to governance reform as a criterion for receiving aid. Thus,
limiting corruption by creating anti-corruption agencies became one of the requirements
for donors’ support. Though not concentrating on anti-corruption agencies exclusively,
this research report captures the complexity of donor conditions in reforming governance
in Kenya through anti-corruption initiatives. It concludes that conditions are inevitable in
an aid dependent country but cannot be sustained by external actors if they work without
local support. The central argument of this paper is that there is need for promotion of a
convergence of approach in reforming governance. The donor community and indigenous
Africans need to view and promote governance reform from a developmental perspective
in order to make foreign aid count in meeting Africa’s objectives. The policies donors
espouse will bear out on African development if electorates buttress them and these
policies need to be consistence with the welfare of the populace especially economically
marginalized groups of population as Millennium Development Goals seek to encourage.
Description
Student Number : 0500919V -
MA research report -
School of Social Sciences -
Faculty of Humanities
Keywords
corruption, external donors, anticorruption, personal rule, Kenya