The “Ndegwa Report,” which was presented in 1971 by a commission chaired by Duncan Ndegwa, examined the structure and remuneration of the public service in Kenya. One of the most controversial recommendations in the report was that civil servants be allowed to engage in private business, including doing business with the government. This was seen as a way to augment the income of public servants, whose pay was deemed insufficient.
However, the recommendation has sparked significant criticism over the years. Critics argue that it opened the door for widespread corruption, as civil servants could use their insider knowledge and government connections to secure government contracts for their businesses. This practice is often cited as a root cause of the endemic corruption that has plagued Kenya’s public service sector.
Despite the controversy surrounding the report, the government of Kenya has tried to address the issue in more recent years. For example, the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) report, presented in 2019, proposed reversing the Ndegwa recommendation and barring civil servants from engaging in business with the government to curb corruption.