( CNN ) -- Students asked to fork out thousands of Kenyan shillings for a bursary ; drivers pushed to pay police officers for traffic offences ; people asked to shell out large sums to speed up the process of getting a new passport or making a land transfer . These are just some of the most common reports of bribery that can be found in ipaidabribe.or.ke , a recently-launched website dedicated to battling rampant public corruption in Kenya and uncovering its economic impact . The initiative , which was launched last December by Antony Ragui , a 37-year-old financial services consultant , allows victims of graft to share their bribe stories anonymously and track incidents of corruption online . `` I came back to the country from the States about four years ago and I would listen to a lot of Kenyans complain about corruption on social media , on Twitter , on private blogs and I basically got tired of it , '' says Ragui . `` I said now it 's time for me to do something different . '' Read more : Crooked top officials should take a fall , says Kenyan corruption chief . Based on a similar site launched a few years ago in India to curb corruption , Ragui 's online platform is divided in three categories , containing detailed information about the amount of money paid and the location of the bribe . The first section contains stories about bribes that were paid , breaking down the numbers by region and government department . The second collects stories from people who refused to pay a bribe , while the third contains stories of honesty , where citizens were not asked to pay a public official . Until now , Ragui 's site has hosted nearly 600 cases of , mainly petty , bribery worth around 17 million Kenyan shillings ( Â£204,000 ) . `` Corruption is a huge issue : it 's so endemic and the worst part about it is it becomes a way of life , '' says Ragui , who 's also about to roll out an SMS service that will allow citizens to report their stories instantaneously via their mobile phones . `` So what I 'm trying to do with the site essentially is to get people to create a network of anti-corruption people -- people who feel that this has to come to an end and we need to make a difference . '' Opinion : Can Kenya avoid Africa 's resource curse ? According to anti-corruption group Transparency International , Kenya is one of the world 's most corrupt countries . The group 's 2011 East African Bribery Index said that there is a 67 % chance that Kenyans would be expected to pay a bribe every time they interacted with the police . Overall , the cost of corruption in Africa is estimated at more than $ 148 billion a year , according to African Union estimates . Yet ipaidabribe.or.ke is not the only attempt to use information technology as a tool in the fight against corruption in Africa as an increasing number of similar websites have popped up across the continent . Also based on India 's I Paid A Bribe , Bribe Nigeria was set up last summer by Leonard Raphael to raise awareness about corruption and address its impact on the West African country . `` Corruption is an endemic disease that has eaten up every facet of the Nigerian society , '' says Raphael , pointing to the case of a father who was asked by police officers to give them money for fuel after they came to his house to search for his son who was just kidnapped . `` As soon as corruption can be controlled in Nigeria , every other sustainable development can henceforth progress , '' adds Raphael . In South Africa , Corruption Watch was launched in late January in a bid to encourage people to join their voices against the problem . So far , the group says it has collected some 1,200 reports from all corners of the country through its online reporting form , an SMS line , social media and by email or post . `` It 's designed principally to show to people that by reporting and by speaking up something can happen , '' says the group 's executive director David Lewis . `` The way of changing things in a democracy is to speak up and to speak as much as possible with a connected voice , '' he adds . Read more : The Africans looking to make it in China . Ben Elers , director of programs at Transparency International , says that all these initiatives can be a powerful tool in the fight against corruption . `` I think they are essential in giving citizens a voice , they 're enabling them to voice their frustrations , '' he says . He adds , however , that since the complaints are generally anonymous , it can be difficult to follow up on them . `` Ultimately they are tools and what happens afterwards in changing the physical world is what counts at the end of the day , '' he says . `` So , they are critical but in of themselves they 're not sufficient , they need concrete follow-up afterwards . '' Back in Kenya , Ragui is optimistic that the use of technology can help things change . `` Kenyans are tired , '' he says . `` We need a new generation of Kenyans who are actually positive , hard-working , people who do n't want to get a short-term gain , people who are actually thinking the only way to make a difference in our country is for people to say no to corruption . ''
African activists are increasingly turning to technology to fight endemic corruption . Websites allow victims of graft to share their bribe stories online and track incidents of corruption . They contain detailed information about the amount of money paid and the location of the bribe .