Social meaning of Bribery and its influence on Matatu operators in Kisii County, Kenya

Abstract

Bribery is a worrisome problem to both businesses and government in Kenya. One sector that has particularly been affected by bribery is the transport sector. According to Transparency International, the police are said to be the most recipients of bribes on the road. This study was therefore undertaken to understand how the players in the Matatu industry perceive bribery and the influence of this perception on their behaviour. The objectives of this study were: to investigate the social meaning of bribery among matatu operators, to understand how social meanings influence the tactics used by matatu operators to bribe, to establish how the social meanings and the attendant tactics affects the prevention of bribery and to examine how government policies, practices and laws on bribery intersect with matatu operator’s narratives. Social construction and critical discourse analysis theories guided the study. The target population were all the 36 (registered) Matatu Sacco’s operating from and to Kisii town bus terminus. The sample size for the study was 76. The sampling technique adopted was purposive sampling. In-depth interviews, focus group discussions, Key Informant Interviews and observation were the methods used to collect data. The data collected was organized into themes and then content analysis was used to analyse the data. The study found that the matatu drivers, conductors and Sacco managers attached various social meanings to bribery. This included bribery as ‘chai’, as ‘kitu kidogo’, as ‘a blindfold’, as ‘protection money’, among others. The study also found that these constructed social meanings influenced the various tactics used by matatu operators to bribe the law enforcement officers.These tactics included, dropping of ksh.100 note on the road, inserting money in the driver’s licence, transacting the bribe through ‘Mpesa’, among others. The study also found that the tactics used by the matatu operators to bribe made the prevention of bribery rather difficult. The study further found that the matatu drivers, conductors and Sacco managers had little knowledge of the various existing laws on bribery, and in instances where they were aware, they had little or no faith on their effectiveness in preventing bribery. The study recommends that citizens be involved in the fight against bribery. The study has clear policy and theoretical implications. On the policy front, the study demonstrated that there is need for legal, judicial, legislative and societal reforms. On the theoretical front, the study demonstrated that the critical discourse analysis and social construction theories are useful in the understanding of bribery as a social problem. The theories demonstrated that socially constructed meanings do influence human behaviour, and as such, to tackle social ills there is need to understand the language used by the actors and to comprehensively deconstruct the meanings that society bestows on social phenomena as a first step.