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Deep-rooted corruption has deepened in the country in the last two years of President William Ruto’s tenure, a corruption report by Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG) now claims.

Under Ruto’s leadership, scandals have multiplied, spendthrift wastage has continued, institutional decline has persisted while checks and balances have been eroded.

According to the report released yesterday by Gladwell Otieno, the Executive Director for AfriCOG, politics of patronage continues apace as President Ruto seeks to consolidate his support base, rewarding his supporters and inviting his one-time opponents into government.

The “expansion of government” is said to have fueled augmented corruption and impunity while at the same time shrinking the government’s room in a context of debt distress and the growing demographic pressures exemplified by the Gen Z uprising.

Top among the flagged government institutions said to be abetting high-level corruption as the Auditor General’s office, that of the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and police.

The latest report which documents and assesses corruption in the first two years of the government of President William Ruto also covers the waning days of the Uhuru Kenyatta Jubilee administration.

It’s the latest in a series of reports which have examined the growth and nature of corruption over the decades.

Despite momentary positive developments and heartening displays of individual courage and integrity, corruption continues to thrive in the country, reducing economic growth, facilitating inequality and undermining human rights.

Mandated to audit government and report on the use and management of public resources by public entities, inadequate funding of the AG’s office despite the ballooning scope of work implied by a growing government budget and formation of new entities has been cited as a factor that has facilitated ineffectiveness in unearthing embezzlement of public funds.

At the same time, lack of an effective mechanism for follow up on implementation of audit recommendations is said to have been resulting in most audit queries recurring every year due to lack of decisive action.