Involve everyone in the war against corruption

In reflecting on a new report that casts Tanzania in a relatively positive light, a medical analogy comes in handy—that it is unwise for a malaria patient to compare himself to someone suffering from cancer and feel happy.

The Transparency International (IT) report places Tanzania at Number 111 against 119 last year. The eight-point drop in the Corruption Perceptions Index makes our country the second least corrupt in East Africa.

This may seem an honour that should excite us. It should not because, though we have been spared the disgrace of being the region’s most corrupt, we are essentially in the same league as Burundi, which bears that tag. Whatever the degree, corruption is a vice that must be fought spiritedly and victory--if it is ever attained--is an outcome that all league members would have cause to be proud of and celebrate.

The Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau cannot, on its own, stamp out the vice—which has become so deeply entrenched that it has attained cancerous proportions.

Individuals and civil society organisations, national institutions, religious denominations and other interested parties should coalesce into an anti-corruption fighting force.

Distinguishing between petty and grand corruption, with the former tolerated and the latter despised--is utterly wrong and must be discouraged. Whatever the degree, corruption erodes the gains we make in other areas of governance.

It ranges from a local government official who demands a Sh5,000 bribe to stamp a document for a mwananchi to a senior public servant who pockets several million shillings to endorse a lucrative deal.

Patriotic Tanzanians must be forthright in exposing graft. By the same token, an environment that protects whistle blowers must be created for the system to work fruitfully.