From left: Mr George Njenga, Dean of SBS; Dr Edward Mungai, SBS's Academic and Research Director; and Mr John Githongo after the lecture

What is the way forward in the fight against corruption? Focus on cultural change, says Mr John Githongo, the former Governance and Ethics Permanent Secretary. He said this at a lecture he delivered at Strathmore Business School (SBS) on Friday, 22nd August.

"The most emotive and powerful argument I heard in support of corruption was: it is our time to eat. To change such deeply entrenched mentality, there is need to change cultural values - like what we are doing here at SBS: teaching ethics and governance," Mr Githongo said.

Mr Githongo is a member of the SBS Advisory Board. He said that setting up anti-corruption institutions had proved ineffective and these institutions set up across Africa in the last 15 years were now folding up. He gave the example of the South Africa Scorpion Unit’s integration into South African Police Service (SAPS).

"Crime globalised faster than anything else owing to the huge returns associated with criminal activities. Corruption is also assuming regional, nay global proportions. Thus a regional and global approach is needed to fight the vice," Mr Githongo said.

Mr Githongo observed that since the fight against corruption began in the early 1990s, the private sector’s attitude towards the vice hadn’t changed. "The sector has always seen corruption as a business cost. And that hasn’t changed," he said.

"Corruption gnaws away at the soul of an individual. This is the most damaging thing it does to a person," Mr Githongo said.

Mr Githongo observed that the fight against corruption tends to have a life of its own. "The perceptions created by anti-corruption efforts are very powerful. This means that at times, anti-corruption efforts undermine political leadership as citizens lose confidence in leaders named in corruption allegations," he said.

"Kenya also needs to deal with the question of skewed distribution of wealth owing to historical injustices. We have to commit ourselves to re-distribution of wealth to remedy historical injustices. This is an issue we haven’t started dealing with," he said.

Mr Githongo is currently Deputy President of World Vision. His lecture titled "Re-thinking Ethics in Africa – key issues" was based on his research at Oxford University’s St Anthony’s College where he is a Research Fellow. Before his appointment to the government in 2003, he was the Director of Transparency International (Kenya Chapter).