Transparency International’s (TI) latest report ranks Tanzania the fourth in the East African Bribery Index (EABI). The report puts our graft prevalence at 28.6 per cent, meaning we are less corrupt than Kenya (31.9 per cent), Uganda (33 per cent) and Burundi (36.7). 

Featuring prominently on the list of the ten most corrupt institutions in the region are our Police and Judiciary. The perception that we are less sleazy than our neighbours, is fed by the fact that researchers always tend to concentrate on high office corruption, paying little attention to the daily bribery practices that go unreported.

Who is not aware that patients are made to part with “something” to get medicine they are supposed to receive for free? Giving bribes, at times even without solicitation from public officials, is increasingly graduating into a national subculture.

If we want to win the war on corruption, we have to tackle the rot from the grassroots. We have to act on the small incidents of bribery that have pervaded our Prisons, Police and Judiciary, allowing the culpable to go free and the innocent to suffer.

We need to have an effective system to dig into why personnel of some departments, soon after appointment, quickly become wealthy and owners of properties that are not commensurate with their salaries