Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:07:40.852Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The politics of anti-corruption reform in Africa*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2009

Letitia Lawson
Letitia Lawson*
Affiliation:
Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Previous research on anti-corruption reform in Africa falls into two camps. The first explores ‘best practices’ and policy approaches to controlling corruption, while the second focuses on the politics of anti-corruption ‘reform’, arguing that official anti-corruption campaigns aim to mollify donors while using corruption charges instrumentally to undermine rivals and shore up personal loyalty to the president, and thus have no chance of controlling corruption. This paper suggests that, while the neopatrimonial context is a very significant limiting factor in anti-corruption reform, limited progress is possible. Examining the motivations and effects, intended and unintended, of anti-corruption reforms in Kenya and Nigeria, it finds that while the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission has indeed been politically marginalised and largely ineffectual, the more autonomous and activist, but politically instrumentalised, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in Nigeria has had a measure of success. The analysis suggests that this is explained by the EFCC's independent prosecutorial powers and the institutionalisation strategies of its chairman.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 47 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 73 - 100
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

References

REFERENCES

Achebe, C. 1988. Anthills of the savannah. Nairobi: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. 1993. The State in Africa: the politics of the belly. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Bienen, H. & Herbst, J.. 1996. ‘The relationship between political and economic reform in Africa’, Comparative Politics 29, 1: 23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chabal, P. & Daloz, J.-P.. 1999. Africa Works: disorder as political instrument. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Collier, M. 2002. ‘Explaining corruption: an institutional choice approach’, Crime, Law and Social Change 38, 1: 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, P. 2000. ‘How to reduce corruption’, African Development Review 12, 2: 191–205.Google Scholar
EFCC. 2007. ‘EFCC Responds’, <www.efccnigeria.org>, accessed 30.8.2008.,+accessed+30.8.2008.>Google Scholar
EFCC. 2008. ‘Encomiums as EFCC Celebrates 5th Anniversary’, <www.efccnigeria.org>, accessed 30.8.2008.,+accessed+30.8.2008.>Google Scholar
Geddes, B. 1991. ‘A game theoretic model of reform in Latin American democracies’, The American Political Science Review 85, 2: 371–92.Google Scholar
Geddes, B. 1994. Politician's Dilemma: building state capacity in Latin America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gillespie, K. & Okrulik, G.. 1991. ‘The political dimensions of corruption cleanups: a framework for analysis’, Comparative Politics 24, 1: 77–95.Google Scholar
Githongo, J. 2005. ‘Report on my findings of graft in the Government of Kenya’, unpublished, <news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/09_02_06_kenya_report.pdf>, accessed 30.8.2008.,+accessed+30.8.2008.>Google Scholar
Harrison, G. 1999. ‘Clean-ups, conditionality & adjustment: why institutions matter in Mozambique’, Review of African Political Economy 26: 323–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hasty, J. 2005. ‘The pleasures of corruption: desire and discipline in Ghanaian political culture’, Cultural Anthropology 20, 2: 271–301.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch (HRW). 2008. ‘Nigeria: firing of anti-corruption chief would boost abusive politicians’, <http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/01/01/nigeri17671_txt.htm>, accessed 30.8.2008.,+accessed+30.8.2008.>Google Scholar
Kenya, Republic of. 2005. Report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Goldenberg Affair, <www.tikenya.org/documents/Goldenberg%20Report.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Kenya, Republic of. 2006. Special Audit Report of the Controller and Auditor General on Financing, Procurement and Implementation of Security Related Projects, <www.marsgroupkenya.org/Reports/Government/Special_audits_of_Security_Projects.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC). 2007. Corruption Perceptions Survey, www.kacc.go.ke/docs/Surveys/National%20Corruption%20Perception%20Survey%202007.pdfGoogle Scholar
KACC. 2008. <www.kacc.go.ke/archives/PressReleases/GRAND-REGENCY-APRIL08.pdf>..>Google Scholar
KACC, various years. Annual Report, <www.kacc.go.ke/doc>..>Google Scholar
KACC, various years. Quarterly Report, <www.kacc.go.ke/doc>..>Google Scholar
KACC, website. <www.kacc.go.ke>..>Google Scholar
Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), website. <www.khrc.or.ke>..>Google Scholar
Kenya National Assembly (KNA), Ninth Parliament – Fifth Session 2006. Public Accounts Committee Report on Special Audit on Procurement of Passport Issuing Equipment by the Department of Immigration, Office of the Vice-President and Ministry of Home Affairs, <www.tikenya.org/documents/pac_report06.pdf>..>Google Scholar
Kjaer, A. 2004. ‘Old brooms can sweep too! An overview of rulers and public sector reform in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya’, Journal of Modern African Studies 42, 3: 389–413.Google Scholar
Klitgaard, R. 1988. Controlling Corruption. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Kroll Associates. 2004. KTM: Consolidated Report, <http://wikileaks.org/wiki/KTM_report.pdf>, accessed 30.8.2008.,+accessed+30.8.2008.>Google Scholar
McCoy, J. & Heckel, H.. 2001. ‘The emergence of a global anti-corruption norm’, International Politics 38: 65–90.Google Scholar
Michael, B. 2006. ‘Depoliticizing anti-corruption in Bolivia: local international intervention and the state’, International Journal of Public Administration 29: 1311–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Migdal, J. 1988. Strong Societies and Weak States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mishra, A. 2005. ‘Persistence of corruption: some theoretical perspectives’, World Development 34, 2: 349–58.Google Scholar
Mungui-Pippidi, A. 2006. ‘Corruption: diagnosis and treatment’, Journal of Democracy 17, 3: 86–99.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, J. 1999. ‘A moral economy of corruption in Africa?’, Journal of Modern African Studies 37, 1: 25–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Otieno, G. 2005. ‘The NARC's anti-corruption drive in Kenya: somewhere over the rainbow?’, African Security Review 14, 2: 69–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reno, W. 1998. Warlord Politics and African States. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ribadu, N. 2006. ‘Nigeria's struggle with corruption’, statement before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, 109th congress, second session, 18 May, Washington, DC: GPO.Google Scholar
Scher, D. 2005. ‘Asset recovery: repatriating Africa's looted billions’, African Security Review 14, 4: 17–26.Google Scholar
Tangri, R. & Mwenda, A.. 2006. ‘Politics, donors and the ineffectiveness of anti-corruption institutions in Uganda’, Journal of Modern African Studies 44, 1: 101–24.Google Scholar
Taylor, S. 2006. ‘Divergent politico-legal responses to past presidential corruption in Zambia and Kenya: catching the “big fish”, or letting them off the hook?’, Third World Quarterly 27, 2: 281–301.Google Scholar
Transparency International (TI). Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), various years. Berlin: Transparency International.Google Scholar
TI. Global Corruption Barometer (GCB), various years. Berlin: Transparency International.Google Scholar
United States. 2006. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations of the Committee on International Relations, House of Representatives, 109th congress, second session, 18 May. Washington, DC: GPO.Google Scholar
van de Walle, N. 1999. ‘Economic reform in a democratizing Africa’, Comparative Politics 32, 1: 21–41.Google Scholar
Warutere, P. 2005. ‘The Goldenberg conspiracy: the game of paper gold, money and power’, ISS Paper 117.Google Scholar
World Bank, 2007. ‘Close-up on Nigeria's corruption fighter’, <http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:21288004~pagePK:3470~piPK:34424~theSitePK:4607,00.html>, accessed 30.8.2008., accessed 30.8.2008.' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=World+Bank,+2007.+‘Close-up+on+Nigeria's+corruption+fighter’,+,+accessed+30.8.2008.>Google Scholar

Newspapers

African Confidential, London; allafrica.com, Washington, DC; BBC News, London; Business Daily, Nairobi; Business Day, Lagos; Christian Science Monitor, Boston, MA; Daily Champion, Lagos; Daily Independent, Lagos; Daily Sun, Lagos; Daily Trust, Abuja; East African, Nairobi; Economist, London; Financial Times, London; Leadership, Abuja; Nation, Nairobi; Punch, Lagos; Standard, Nairobi; This Day, Lagos; Vanguard, Lagos.