DEFINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN RIGHTS AND CORRUPTION

The relationship between corruption and human rights is only beginning to be seriously examined. A major premise of the ongoing research argues that corruption disables a state from meeting its obligations to respect, fulfill, and protect the human rights of its citizens. This Article explores two other relationships between human rights and corruption. First, it shows how individualistic and procedural rights have been used to defeat investigations and prosecutions of corruption by high-level govern-mental officials. Second, it demonstrates how anti-corruption reforms are inconsistent with the social and economic rights of the poor and marginalized because they have primarily targeted the promotion of market efficiency while reducing spending on basic needs and rights such as health and education. These findings are significant because they show that the relationship between corruption and human rights extends beyond demonstrating that corruption disables states from meeting their human rights obligations. Indeed, human rights can be used in support of or against corruption. The thrust of the recommendations made in this Article are premised on an approach to human rights that offers the maximum potential for the democratization of the Kenyan State through transformative constitutional and institutional reforms. This can be done by expanding human rights concerns to include minority rights and safeguards as well as social and economic rights of the poor and marginalized as central agendas.