NAIROBI, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Kenyans are paying more bribes for services due to the government's inefficiency in service delivery which results in bribery by citizens who want to speed up access to these services, according to a new study released in Nairobi on Thursday.

    A corruption watchdog, Transparency International Kenya (TI-Kenya), said five years after the new Kenyan government introduced its crusade against corruption, a survey registers highest bribes in most government offices.

    However, the Kenyan police, ministry of lands and local government are still observed to be pervaded by corrupt practices.

    The report comes a day after the government expressed disappointment that the war against corruption had taken ethnic and political dimensions.

    Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Justice Minister Martha Karua said leaders must accept that corruption was a crime whose perpetrators act in their own selfish interests to the detriment of Kenyans.

    The TI-Kenya presented its newest annual "Bribery Index 2008", which concluded on mixed results of the government's anti-corruption efforts. According to the report, Kenya's employment sector has, however, the highest bribe size this year.

    The survey, which was done between April 25-May 4 this year, says 45 percent of respondents paid bribes to speed up access to services, compared to 29 percent last year.

    "Public service delivery in Kenya are prone to bribery to impunity entrenched by leadership, inefficiency in public sectors and policies that hamper Kenyans' ability to understand, monitor, and access the impact and process of service delivery," said Job Ogonda, Executive Director of TI-Kenya.

    He said that "effective policies are those that give the people and the government the greatest, accessible and affordable services at the least cost in terms of fee and establishment."

    To contain bribe demand in service delivery, the graft watchdog said Kenyan citizens must be able to monitor and influence service and policy impact at the lowest local level.

    "This will reduce the gatekeeper opportunities in service delivery. The responsibility of an enabled, responsible citizenry is a government responsibility that has been not only abdicated, but often punished by service providers," it says.

    According to the survey, bribes paid in relation to employment are twice as much as bribe paid for business purposes. The report places the average size of bribe paid for employment purposes at 5,962 shillings (1 U.S. dollar is about 67 shillings) compared to 3,491 shillings for business transactions.

    "The pervasiveness of corruption is turning Kenya into a nation of predominantly resigned citizens on matters of transparency and accountability in the management of public affairs," said Ogonda during the launch of the report in Nairobi.

    During the period reviewed, Kenyans perception of corruption has not changed since last year. According to experiences of Kenyans captured in the survey, the perception has moved more towards the negative to what many described to "a lot worse and little worse" levels of corruption.

    According to the report, 64 percent of respondents paid bribes and never reported the incident, a situation that the report cites leads to the culture of impunity amongst the country's leaders and resignation among citizens.

    In terms of reporting incidents, it says most Kenyans were highly passive in regard to bribes demanded by the police. Despite this passivity in reporting bribe incidents, most Kenyans preferred to report bribe demand to organizations channels.