Rwanda has emerged the least corrupt country in East Africa with lowest levels of bribery in East Africa, according to the East African Bribery Index 2012, a survey by Transparency International.
The survey carried out in Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, the survey revealed that, at 40.7%, Uganda has the highest bribery levels in the region, followed by Tanzania (39.1%), Kenya (29.5%), Burundi (18.8%) and Rwanda (2.5%).
According to the survey, Uganda has not improved. Last year, Uganda polled at 38%.
The respondents (1449) drawn from central, eastern, northern and western Uganda strongly believe that bribery levels will increase in the coming years.
The Uganda case means that bribery will gravely add to the cost of doing business, which in turn affects production. At a regional level, bribery will adversely affect trade between nations with countries.
There is, therefore, need to address the issue.
On the current state of corruption, 82% of respondents observed that corruption levels either remained as bad or increased in the last one year.
The biggest reasons given for this trend were the lack of political will to fight the vice and the fact that government officials in Uganda are too corrupt to effectively fight corruption.
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