Kenya scales the charts on governance

President Uhuru Kenyatta addresses a youth summit at State House, Nairobi, on October 3, 2016. The 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) indicated that over the past decade, overall governance had improved. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • According to the report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, Kenya ranked 12th out of 54 countries in overall governance.
  • The 10th edition of IIAG brings together data to assess African countries against 95 indicators drawn from 34 independent sources.

Kenya has improved in governance over the past 10 years, a report has shown.

According to the report by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation released Monday in London, Kenya ranked 12th out of 54 countries in overall governance, with a score of 59 per cent, a 5.1 improvement over the past 10 years.

However, the report stated that the progress in African governance over the past decade was being held back by deterioration in safety and rule of law.

“Kenya is one of the 10 countries that improved across all four sub-categories of the Sustainable Economic Opportunity category,” the report stated.

The 2016 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG) indicated that over the past decade, overall governance had improved.

“The overall positive trend has been led mainly by improvement in Human Development and Participation & Human Rights. Sustainable Economic Opportunity also registered an improvement, but at a slower pace,” said the report.

The 10th edition of IIAG brings together data to assess African countries against 95 indicators drawn from 34 independent sources.

The deterioration in the rule of law, it stated, had worsened recently, with almost half of the countries on the continent recording their worst score ever in this category within the last three years.

This year, for the first time, the IIAG includes Public Attitude Survey data from Afrobarometer.

This captures Africans’ own perceptions of governance, which provide fresh perspective on the results registered by other data such expert assessment and official data