Viability of Lifestyle Audits as an Anti-Corruption Strategy in Kenya: A Critical Assessment of the Policy, Legal and Administrative Framework

Abstract

The business of fighting corruption in Kenya dates back to the colonial period and has continued through successive governments. However, no significant progress has been made over the decades. Instead, corruption has continued to permeate every sector of Kenya’s economy, sometimes in an industrial scale. This is despite continued implementation of diverse strategies as contained in Kenya’s anti-corruption laws, which include a new and reformist Constitution with an avalanche of far reaching changes in Kenya’s constitutional architecture governing the fight against corruption.

There is a contemporary national debate as to whether or not Kenya can legally and effectively undertake lifestyle audits on its state and public officers as a strategy in the efforts to curb runaway corruption especially in the public sector. Lifestyle audits are premised on the belief that an individual’s quality of life and level of affluence are greatly informed by their financial capacity or wealth. Any indication of incongruity between an individual’s income and lifestyle could therefore call for investigations and possible recovery of the proceeds of corruption. This paper explores the viability of lifestyle audits as a strategy for combating and preventing corruption in Kenya, and the efficacy of the existing anti-corruption regime in facilitating effective lifestyle audits.

Conscious that sound laws on their own cannot be a panacea for corruption, the paper further makes various general recommendations on how lifestyle audits could be effectively deployed in the context of Kenya’s political, economic, social and cultural environment. The paper primarily relied on data obtained through study, review and analysis of law and available information and literature on the use of lifestyle audits as a strategy to combat and prevent corruption, focusing mainly on Kenya.

Keywords: Kenya, Lifestyle Audits, Anti-Corruption Frameworks, Public Sector Accountability, Corruption