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| Image: Courtesy. |
I’m not engaging in a kind of
a guns-blazing-no-holds-barred attack against the purported government of the
majority, whose legitimacy is a knife-edge question, but undertaking an almost
saintly act of expressing my disenchantment regarding the theft of public funds
and immorality at the heart of government institutions.
It is immoral to embezzle
resources that belong to the public. For the last five years, there is no doubt
whatsoever that the Jubilee administration has presided over world class corruption
and unrivalled immorality.
Recently, the Principal
Secretary of the Interior Ministry, Karanja Kibicho, admitted that in the last
five years corruption has gone up by 240%. One wonders how such public theft
occurs while no individuals can be held accountable.
Normally, an incident of theft
requires an agent before it is sanctioned and in due course materializes. This
raises a fundamental concern in regards to why perpetrators of these scams
especially under the Jubilee administration are yet to be jailed. Does it mean
that corruption involving government agencies involves faceless individuals?
Kenya, under the rule of the
Jubilee administration is a total joke, and as a matter of fact it can hardly
be thought of as a country let alone a nation. And to set the record straight,
Kenya cannot be thought of as a nation.
In fact, Kenya has only
flirted with the state of nationhood thrice: the first time at the dawn of
independence; the second time in 2002/2003 when NARC took over; and in 2010
following the promulgation of the current constitution.
Going by the political
definition of the term ‘country’, Kenya does not qualify as one because of the
immorality sanctioned by government officers in the form of plundering
resources. Thus, Kenya is a den of corruption and a haven to the corrupt. This
is the major reason why the proceeds from the economy only benefit a few
individuals and not the majority.
Yes to Vice, No to Virtue
Profiting from vice is the
order of the day in Kenya and this is an indication of a society characterized
by systemic failure. The high affinity to vice than virtue in Kenya is not just
a black spot for the public sector as the private sector is equally corrupt.
From the so-called whales,
sharks, the big fish to the small fish of the rungs of the Kenyan society, the
vice of corruption rules; its tentacles are widely spread and the culture is
deeply entrenched.
Corruption has evolved over
the years and it has become a national culture. Even with a constitution that
lays a lot of emphasis on integrity, efforts to de-institutionalize the culture
of corruption have proven to be futile.
It is nonsensical to have a
government that is dominated with robber barons, individuals whose main motive
is to speculate how they can orchestrate looting of public resources and from
where.
We should not forget that by
the term government reference is drawn to the national government and the
county governments including their various arms. For instance, at the national
level we have the Executive, Parliament and Judiciary. At the county level, we
have the county assemblies and the county executives.
Sadly, these organs are
dominated by people who are short of character, and in any case they would
hardly meet the threshold of occupying state offices in countries or nations
that are serious democracies and where integrity is highly regarded.
But, with a saintly reflection
it is clear that citizens have given consent to the culture of corruption to
permeate in the Republic. Look, majority of the citizens – those eligible to
vote – are either compromised and vote for the wrong people or do not vote at
all hence allowing the corrupt to be elected in office.
Kenya began its
post-independence journey on a path that can be described as evil, highly
immoral and certainly vicious. The Jomo Kenyatta-led administration was full of
individuals whose desire was to amass wealth at the expense of fighting
poverty, disease and ignorance – the main challenges that Kenyans faced at the dawn of independence.
Unfortunately, the three
challenges still bedevil the Republic primarily due to corruption that has been
handed down in ceremonious fashion from the Jomo Kenyatta regime, to the
perpetually corrupt Moi regime, to the Kibaki administration and to the current
rogue and fundamentally corrupt Jubilee administration.
Dealing with corruption in the
Republic calls for not only upholding the rule of law but also advocating for a
culture change in the various levels and classes of the Kenyan society. This
means in essence that the social aspects need to be looked at to ensure that
Kenyans begin to endear themselves to virtue and not vice.
For instance, the role of the
family in the socialization and enculturation process of an individual needs to
be revisited. Nowadays, the family is a neglected institution that no longer
imparts the socially approved morals like integrity and being mindful of
others’ welfare. The family has instead degenerated into an entity where greed
is hatched, preached and practiced.
Additionally, the education
system has failed to teach learners about morality and integrity. How do we
expect students and pupils who steal exams to be the yardsticks of morality in
the Republic? And hopelessly, teachers and parents facilitate the culture of
cheating in examinations. Is the present and future of Kenya not doomed?
On the Price of Corruption
Corruption is a commodity and
just like other valuable products, it has a price and a market determined by
the forces of demand and supply.
Normally, the production of a
commodity and distribution are determined by a set of incentives. Incentives
motivate the producers to produce commodities and enable traders to engage in
trading activities. For instance, the primary incentive for capitalists is to
make profits.
Since corruption is a
commodity, its value is attached to the various socio-economic classes that
exist in Kenya with each class engaging in corruption activities it can easily
afford. The rich – those with means – can easily afford to engage in corruption
in the upper echelons of government. The poor – the have nots, the scum of the
Kenyan society – and the hoi polloi can afford to pay for corruption that takes
place at the lower levels of the Republic’s socio-economic and political
strata.
The bottom line, however, is
that each social and economic class can afford to pay for corruption depending
on the socio-economic stratification, just like in a normal product market
where the rich can afford purchasing luxurious commodities and the poor can
afford buying low quality sometimes cheap counterfeit goods.
Thence, the price of
corruption is too low in Kenya in that it can easily be afforded by majority of
the citizens whether one is looting billions from state institutions or paying
a fifty shilling bribe for easier access to public services.
A vicious fight against
corruption in the Republic, therefore, requires that this vice be made
unaffordable. In essence, this calls for the cost of engaging in corruption to
be increased, and as a result eliminate the incentives that facilitate graft to
take place.
In increasing the cost of
engaging in corruption and subsequently its price, it implies that punitive
measures such as death sentence should be experimented and eventually instituted.
Just like a typical economy
with extractive institutions where inequality between the poor and the rich is
massive - with the rich getting away with whatever economic benefit as the have
nots hope for the better – the legal system in Kenya is rogue and unequal with
the whales, the sharks and the big fish that engage in corruption going scot
free as the small fish literally face the full force of the law. This is
outright subversion of the rule of law.
As matter-of-factly, the
Jubilee administration is busy engaging in mere publicity stunts of arresting
the NYS scandal suspects and talking tough as usual while the politicians, and
other wheeler-dealers in government circles who choreograph the looting are yet
to be prosecuted.
What happened to the first NYS
scandal investigations? The Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary owe the tax
payers an explanation on this.
By the way, in the month of
May 2018 a clerk at the Kibera Huduma Centre was sentenced to two years in jail
and fined Kshs. 500,000 for taking a bribe of Kshs. 2,500. This clerk is a
small fish. What about the big fish, the whales and the sharks of the NYS
scandals, the NCPB looting, and other scams engineered under the watch of the
Jubilee administration?
Ours is not a country; it is a
den of thieves and a haven for the robber barons and the irredeemably corrupt.
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