THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORRUPTION AND UNEMPLOYMENT RATES IN KENYA

AbstractThe main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between corruption andunemployment in Kenya from the year 2000 to 2017. Over the last two decades the rate of corruption in Kenyahas been high as millions of Kenyan money is stolen by few individuals. Kenya has been eaten so deep bycorruption as so many people have been implicated in corruption scandals. The fight against corruption hasbecome difficult as the majority of those who engage in it are government officials. To fight this menace ofcorruption, many youths in Kenya have resorted to engage in unlawful activities such as theft and crime as mostof them blame corrupt leaders to be the cause of their unemployment situation and they don’t have hope of beingemployed even though they are well educated. On the hand Kenya is doing relatively better in Eastern Africa interms of economic growth and development but reports by the Human Development Index (HDI) 2017 recorded39.1 per cent unemployment rate in Kenya. This clearly indicates that Kenya has the highest number ofunemployment rates in East Africa as countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda recorded a lower rate ofunemployment. The high rate of Unemployment in Kenya when its economy is relatively better shows that thereare other serious factors which are affecting unemployment in Kenya. Corruption being one of the major factorsthat many Kenyan people see as a cause of unemployment was analysed in this study. The study established thatcorruption has a long term impact on unemployment in Kenya as on the long run an increase in corruption rateincreases unemployment rates.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORRUPTION AND UNEMPLOYMENT RATES IN KENYA

The main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between corruption and unemployment in Kenya from the year 2000 to 2017. Over the last two decades the rate of corruption in Kenya has been high as millions of Kenyan money is stolen by few individuals. Kenya has been eaten so deep by corruption as the young and old, learned and the unlearned, men and women have been implicated on corruption scandals. The fight against corruption has become difficult as the majority of those who engage in it are government officials. To fight this menace of corruption, many youths in Kenya have resorted to engage in unlawful activities such as theft and crime as most of them blame corrupt leaders to be the cause of their unemployment situation and they don’t have hope of being employed even though they are well educated. On the hand Kenya is doing relatively better in Eastern Africa in terms of economic growth and development but reports by the Human Development Index (HDI) 2017 recorded 39.1 per cent unemployment rate in Kenya. This clearly indicates that Kenya has the highest number of unemployment rates in East Africa as countries like Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda recorded a lower rate of unemployment. The high rate of Unemployment in Kenya when its economy is relatively better shows that there are other serious factors which are affecting unemployment in Kenya. Corruption being one of the major factors that many Kenyan people see as a cause of unemployment was analysed in this study. The study established that corruption has a long term impact on unemployment in Kenya as on the long run an increase in corruption rate increases unemployment rates.

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