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Corruption and Self Intrest in Kampala and Nairobi: A Comment on Local Politics in East Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

J. David Greenstone
J. David Greenstone
Affiliation:
University of Chicago
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Extract

At the end of his suggestive political analysis of Nairobi, Herbert Werlin asserts that a major goal for Kenya politics “is to build up the basis for cooperation” (p. 197). Cooperation existed in Kenya under British colonialism; it exists in Britain today. Lack of cooperation at present makes it more difficult for Kenya and Nairobi to solve acute social and economic problems. For Werlin, cooperation requires an educated, public-spirited citizenry, a politically conscious, reform minded business class, and a corps of dedicated professional administrators (p. 197). Cooperation requires a modern social order which in American cities has functioned to encourage “good government”. But this very modern concept of cooperation tells us more about where Kenya and Nairobi ought to go than how they should get there.

Type
Urban Politics
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , January 1966 , pp. 199 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1966

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References

1 See Grodzins, Morton, “Centralization and Decentralization in the American Federal System”, in A Nation of States, Goldwin, Robert A., ed., pp. 1–23 (Chicago, Rand McNally, 1964Google Scholar) and Elazar, Daniel J., The American Partnership (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1962Google Scholar).

2 Easton, David, A Framework for Political Analysis (Englewood Cliffs, Prentice Hall, 1965), p. 132Google Scholar. Emphasis supplied.

3 See Rothchild, Donald and Rogin, Michael, “Uganda”, in National Unity and Regionalism in Eight African States, ed. Carter, Gwendolyn (Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell University Press, 1965Google Scholar).

4 Of the ten Africans among the thirty councillors, one was the ex officio representative of the British Resident, Buganda; another, the mayor, was among the richest Africans in the country. Two others were civil servants; one was an unaggressive Catholic priest; another was a substantial shopowner; two others were owners of small shops; one was a lawyer. Only one, Aggery Willis, could be considered anything like the anti-European nationalists who set the tone of the council by 1964.

5 See for examples, Sexton, Patricia, Income and Education (New York, Viking Press, 1961Google Scholar); Williams, Oliver P. and Adrian, Charles R., Four Cities (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1963), esp. pp. 255–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Banfield, Edward C. and Wilson, James Q., City Politics (Cambridge, Harvard University Press and the M.I.T. Press, 1963Google Scholar), chs. 11, 12, and 13; and Banfield, Edward C., ed., Urban Government (New York, The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961Google Scholar), Part IV.

6 Banfield and Wilson, p. 125, n. 7.

7 See the Uganda Argus, February 24, 1964 and March 24, 1964 for some further detail.

8 Wraith, Ronald and Simpkins, Edgar, Corruption in Developing Countries (London, George Allen and Unwin, 1963), pp. 14, 52–53Google Scholar.

9 See the Uganda Argus, July 26, July 31 and September 28, 1963 and The Daily Nation, August 27, 1963.

10 See the Uganda Argus, February 29, 1964.

11 That is, those officials with annual salaries above £687 (about $2,000).

12 Personal interview.

13 The Uganda Argus, August 26, 1963.

14 Banfield and Wilson, p. 115 ff. See also Clark, Peter B. and Wilson, James Q., “Incentive Systems, A Theory of Organizations”, Administrative Science Quarterly, VI (September, 1961), 129–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 See Wraith, and Simpkins, , and Smith, M. G., “Historical Conditions of Political Corruption Among the Hausa”, CSSH, VI (January, 1964), 164–94Google Scholar.

16 Banfidd and Wilson, p. 117.

17 Hartz, Louis, The Liberal Tradition in America (New York, Harcourt, Brace and World, 1955Google Scholar).

18 Banfield and Wilson, p. 126.

19 Banfield, Edward C., Political Influence (New York, The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961), p. 328Google Scholar.

20 Wraith and Simpkins, p. 60.

21 The author wishes to thank Michael Barkun of Syracuse University, Richard Flathman of the University of Chicago, and Ali A. Mazrui of Makerere College, Kampala, for helpful criticisms of an earlier draft.