Journal of Anti-Corruption Law

Unraveling the Intricacies of Formality and Informality: An Examination of Uganda's Institutional Fight against Corruption

Daniel M. Walyemera — 2025-12-28

This paper examines Uganda’s anti-corruption landscape, highlighting how the interplay between formal and informal mechanisms affects the country’s governance. By analyzing existing structures and strategies, we identify both the critical strengths and significant obstacles in the fight against corruption. Contrary to the belief that a multi-layered approach is effective, we argue that this strategy often results in anti-corruption mechanisms that conflict with one another, leading to a waste of limited public resources and negatively impacting anti-corruption efforts. The proliferation of both formal and informal anti-corruption structures is partly due to a lack of political will to address corruption in Uganda to enable regime survival. By strategically directing resources toward specific formal anti-corruption agencies, we can ensure a more efficient and effective use of public resources in combating these serious crimes. This paper focuses specifically on informal entities within the State House and examines formal agencies, namely the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Inspectorate of Government, in the context of the multitude of anti-corruption organizations. The study utilizes doctrinal research methods to conduct its analysis.

CORRUPTION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA: A HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE

John Mubangizi — 2025-12-28

This paper explores the link between corruption and sustainable development in Africa from a human rights perspective. It begins by unpacking the key concepts of corruption, sustainable development, and human rights, and offering a theoretical framework to understand their interconnections. Corruption is examined not only as a governance challenge but also as a fundamental impediment to the realisation of human rights and the achievement of sustainable development goals. Drawing on case studies from South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda, the paper assesses how legal frameworks, policy reforms and civil society initiatives have addressed (or failed to address) corruption and its effects on sustainable development. These case studies highlight both persistent challenges and emerging strategies in confronting corruption across different national contexts. The paper argues for – and recommends – a human rights-based approach to combating corruption and to sustainable development. It also recommends promoting transparency, strengthening judicial independence, and enhancing civic society participation, among other things.

Transformative Corruption-Proof Child-Sensitive Social Protection in Africa: An Explorative study

Musavengana W.T. CHIBWANA — 2025-12-28

This paper undertakes an explorative investigation into the intersection of systemic corruption and child-sensitive social protection mechanisms in Africa, interrogating how entrenched patterns of malfeasance function as structural violence against children on the continent. Drawing on interpretivist-constructivist research paradigms, the study critically examines the extent to which corruption erodes the efficacy, legitimacy, and rights-based foundations of social protection systems designed for children. Through a review of empirical evidence and case studies, the analysis demonstrates how corrupt practices extend beyond financial misappropriation to encompass psychological harms, the erosion of public trust, and the normalization of unethical behaviours within bureaucratic systems. The research foregrounds the inadequacies of prevailing anti-corruption frameworks, which are often hamstrung by state-centric, punitive approaches and a lack of sensitivity to colonial legacies and neoliberal policy architectures that perpetuate exclusion. By situating corruption as both a symptom and driver of broader sociopolitical dysfunction, the paper highlights the multiplicity of ways in which children’s rights are systematically undermined, resulting in intergenerational cycles of poverty and marginalization. The study underscores that material deprivation, misallocation of resources, and diminished access to critical services such as healthcare, nutrition, and education converge to entrench disadvantage among African children, particularly in low-resource contexts. Ultimately, the paper calls for a paradigmatic shift in both research and policy, one that privileges nuanced, contextually grounded inquiry and foregrounds the lived experiences of children over reductionist metrics. By advancing a rights-based, transformative, and corruption-proof approach to child-sensitive social protection, the study offers pathways for dismantling systemic barriers and advancing social justice for Africa’s children.

EMERGENCY RESPONSES AND PROCUREMENT CORRUPTION IN AFRICA

SOPE WILLIAMS — 2025-12-29

The last two decades have been challenging on a global scale. There have been a series of severe health emergencies, and man-made disasters such as the BP Deepwater oil spill in 2010 and the Tlahuelilpan pipeline explosion in 2019, to name a few. There has also been an exponential increase in disastrous climate events such as hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, tropical storms, droughts, and heat waves, and it is expected that these would increase in frequency, scale, and impact. Emergencies whether natural or man made require governments to take swift action to address the consequences of the emergency. This is often done through emergency procurements, which are prone to corruption risks. This paper discusses the corruption risks in emergency procurement and provides an overview of approaches to emergency procurement in South Africa and Nigeria, highlighting the challenges faced in both countries. The paper then examines the anti-corruption interventions required to reduce the risks of corruption during emergencies. It will be seen that addressing corruption in emergencies requires a crisis preparation framework, which includes a contracting strategy which could mitigate wasteful spending. This strategy must include clarity on roles and approvals, inter-agency coordination, reliance on data, coordination with domestic manufacturing for emergency goods, an increased focus on civil society monitoring and oversight from supreme audit institutions.