The illicit extracting, hiding and channeling of capital from poor countries to havens abroad destroys societies and must be curtailed. How do we go about achieving this?

Today we conclude the series, not because we have exhausted the issues but because we must stop somewhere in the hope that your interest on the subject of dirty money flows is kindled sufficiently for you to do further reading and ask questions. We shall point to sources for further reading at the end. We promised that today's installment will address the cost that illicit capital outflows impose on Africa/Kenya's efforts to reduce poverty and build accountable democracies. We also said we will point at ways to curtail the phenomenon, and so we will. But before we do so, let's recount the drivers and mechanisms of dirty money flows to remind us and to set the context for how to address the problem.

In the last installment we tried to explain the web of players that are involved in facilitating bribery, concealing the identities of the beneficiaries of bribery and corruption and the shifting of their ill-gotten wealth into havens of secrecy abroad, protected from the public view and from tax authorities.

We suggested that ultimately the buck stops with the politicians and public servants who use their delegated power not to provide services to their people but to enrich themselves. Leadership without integrity opens the door for the use of power to manipulate the law for personal gain and for self-protection. My good old friend Papi Silvio once told the legendary Italian journalists Indro Motanelli and Enzo Biagi that "I am forced to enter politics, otherwise they will put me in prison" (www.vanityfair.com). If that's what motivates people to seek political representation what can stop them from abusing all rules of decency for their own interest and protection?