EU warns Kenya over grand corruption, but overall Africa makes progress

The European Union has threatened to blacklist Kenya over corruption and money laundering, with the bloc’s Ambassador to Kenya warning that the east African country’s reluctance to curb corruption and money laundering could scare off investors.
The EU is revisiting an old problem Nairobi has struggled to contain and if there is no substantial progress with regard to curbing corruption and money laundering, Kenya may also face restrictions, EU Ambassador to Kenya Henriette Geiger told a media briefing over the upcoming European Union-Kenya Business Forum with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (2 February). “For us, we think that to fight corruption is in the best interest of Kenya because maybe this is the single most determinant of investment. And also, Kenya is on the watchlist for money laundering,” Geiger added. “If Kenya is not making an effort, it will be blacklisted and that has a lot of very negative consequences. The most important one is that investors are shying away.”
The EU ambassador was reacting to the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index recently published by the Transparency International that ranked Kenya at 123 out of 180 countries and territories assessed with a score of 32 out of 100, a slight improvement from a score of 30 points in 2021. However, there are overall some encouraging signs that corruption is being successfully tackled in parts of Africa. Some African nations have made significant progress and are rising on the index, including Angola, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Senegal. “Seven of the 24 countries that we see improving are actually in Africa, so this is one of the regions that is stuck at the bottom of the index, but where we also see progress happening,” says Transparency International’s Roberto Kukutschka.