By the end of February 2026, the country will have a whole set of newly elected leaders. The election will be the first since the release in February of a report by Afrobarometer, which worryingly revealed that 66 percent of the respondents believe that corruption has increased, 55 percent of them saying it has increased ‘a lot’.
About 68 percent of citizens believe that ‘most’ or ‘all’ police officials are corrupt. Some 59 percent saw widespread corruption among tax officials, 57 percent saw it in the civil service, 56 percent in the Judiciary. At least 47 percent perceive ‘most’ or ‘all’ MPs as corrupt.
This is a vote of no confidence in our civil service, the Judiciary, Legislature and by extension the Executive. It also points to the feeling that there is no will to fight corruption. A few days ago, the Directorate of Public Prosecutions ‘lost interest’ in cases of alleged corruption that were before the courts. We are by no means suggesting that the people who were before court were guilty. We just think that the processes should have been allowed to run their course. The courts would have, in any case, been able to prove the accused innocent.
Such developments feed into the narrative that there is selective application of the law and selective prosecution of cases of alleged corruption. There is need for us to have a serious conversation on the fight against corruption and abuse of office and public resources. Failure to prosecute cases of corruption and abuse of public resources is fueling impunity and eroding public confidence in public institutions and offices. The need for radical action to restore public confidence cannot be understated.
That the manifestos of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and of the Opposition parties, the National Unity Platform (NUP); the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) and the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) are emphasising the need to fight corruption and abuse of public offices and resources is testimony that the country badly needs that action. The problem is that promises to fight and stamp out corruption are never fulfilled. That is the first point at which the fight is being lost.
Part of the problem is that some elected leaders are not fully aware of what is required of them. The process of conscientisation must begin immediately after the elections. The lessons should go beyond educating them about their roles and functions under the Constitution, to include lessons on morality, etiquette and rules of decorum. That should help us take our first steps in the fight against corruption.