Corruption stands in Kenya’s journey to job creation, food security and poverty eradication.
Police officers remain the most bribery-prone public officials in Kenya, with an alarming aggregate score of 84 out of 100—39 points ahead of the next worst-performing sector—cementing their position at the top of the country’s bribery index, according to a new report.
The report by Transparency International–Kenya is based on a national survey of 1,033 respondents across 15 counties.
It paints a grim picture of persistent corruption in key public services.
Police topped the index across multiple categories: likelihood of encountering bribery (72.2 percent), prevalence of actual bribery (51.3 percent), and share of national bribes (39.8 percent).
“This means that for every 10 Kenyans who interacted with the police, more than seven encountered a bribery situation—and at least five paid a bribe,” the report stated.
Following the police were land services (45 percent) and motor vehicle licensing (43.7 percent). The judiciary ranked fourth (40.8 percent), while civil registration closed the top five (34.7 percent).
Although the police demanded smaller bribes on average—Sh6,862 per incident—their high interaction rate made them responsible for nearly 40 percent of all reported bribes nationwide.
In contrast, the Judiciary recorded the highest average bribe amount at Sh18,800, followed by land services (Sh12,610) and motor vehicle licensing (Sh10,466).
Business licensing saw the most dramatic increase in bribe sizes from Sh3,136 in 2017 to Sh7,563 in 2025—a 141.5 percent surge. The police sector also saw a 97 percent increase over the same period.
Civil registration and health services also ranked high in bribery prevalence, with 32.7 percent and 37.1 percent of users, respectively, reporting bribes. The health sector had the most significant deterioration—its bribery prevalence rose by 27 percentage points between 2017 and 2025.
By contrast, Huduma Centres were ranked the least prone to bribery. Only 9 percent of users reported encountering bribery, with 8.5 percent reporting actual bribe payments. The average bribe was a modest Sh1,055, and the centres accounted for just 2.9 percent of the national bribe share.
The report noted that bribery’s impact was most pronounced in interactions with the police.
More than half of those who paid bribes to the police believed they would not have received services otherwise. Similar sentiments were reported in motor vehicle licensing (47.8 percent), judiciary (43.5 percent), and land services (40.8 percent).
Reasons for paying bribes varied, with 33 percent said it was the only way to access services, 27.7 percent paid to speed up service delivery, while 18.6 percent paid to avoid problems with authorities.
Despite these alarming figures, formal reporting of bribery remains low—only 17 percent of those involved in bribery incidents reported them, though this marks an increase from 13 percent in 2019 and 6percent in 2017.
Many cited fear of inaction or retaliation as reasons for staying silent.
While digital platforms such as Huduma Centres have helped reduce bribery by limiting human interaction, progress remains uneven. For example, the Ardhi Sasa land digitisation platform currently covers only Nairobi and Murang’a counties, leaving much of the country dependent on the more corruption-prone manual systems.
TI-Kenya also released its 2025 County Governance Status Report, which painted a troubling picture of integrity in county governments. It revealed that service delivery remains poor, transparency is lacking, and corruption continues to hinder grassroots development.
Only 37 percent of counties were rated as performing well on governance indicators. A staggering 63 percent were found wanting in areas such as citizen participation, public financial management, and procurement transparency.
Just 38 percent of respondents said they were aware of how public funds were allocated or spent.
Procurement emerged as a major concern. The report highlighted widespread instances of non-competitive bidding, inflated project costs, limited oversight, and even ghost projects. In several cases, legitimate projects stalled due to misappropriation of funds.
Women, youth, and persons with disabilities were disproportionately excluded from public participation forums. In counties like Turkana and Kisumu, residents said their inputs were either ignored or tokenised.
Worryingly, over 60 percent of county residents said they lacked effective means to hold leaders accountable, blaming weak institutions, fear of reprisals and lack of access to information.
Speaking at the report’s launch, TI-Kenya Executive Director Sheila Masinde raised concerns over bribery’s disproportionate impact on the youth.
“What happens when someone doesn’t have money to bribe officials for crucial services such as police help, business licenses or motor vehicle registration? Youths, aged 18–44, were the most likely to report having been asked for and having paid bribes,” she said.
“It appears the system knows these young people are vulnerable and forces them—despite being largely unemployed—to pay for what should be free. This has to stop,” Ms Masinde added.
To address the crisis in the police sector, the report urged the National Police Service to urgently implement reforms recommended by the Police Reform Taskforce reports of 2009 and 2022. It also called on the judiciary to establish efficient whistleblower systems and handle corruption cases swiftly and fairly.
