Bureaucratic Corruption and Maladministration in Kenya: A Bureaucratic Analysis

Abstract Understanding bureaucratic corruption and maladministration in Africa has often hinged on political dimensions of the state and governance foci. This study crafts and applies the administrative rituals approach or a bureaucratic analysis to explore practical institutional and normative synergies of corruption and maladministration in Kenya. The discussion attempts to draw theoretical generalisations to address broader interests in bureaucratic theory and public accountability, drawing on empirical illustrations of how corruption and maladministration in Kenyan public administration fit within these explanations. The paper shows that despite their knowledge of anti-corruption laws, Kenyan public servants’ actions and behaviours are ritualistically ordained to follow particular patterns over others, some of which reduce public accountability strategies to mere administrative symbols/rituals in public administration.