Has
Kenya become a hotbed of corruption? This year has turned out to be a perdition
for the Jubilee Alliance coalition especially the Executive arm because of the
rampant looting of public funds. It is a culture that the mandarins have fully
embraced and they deserve to be awarded a medal on this but they are an unlucky
lot since we do not have Olympic games that award the outstanding looters. However,
they can choose to award themselves by intensely propagating this societal
vice.
In
recent weeks, the Cabinet Secretary in charge of the Devolution and Planning
docket has been in the news for wrong reasons. This said portfolio has
witnessed massive looting ranging from the shs.791 million National Youth
Service scam and the more recent shs.11 billion scandal occasioned by skewed
procurement and purchasing of several items by the ministry.
CS
Anne Waiguru has been indelible in the wake of calls for her to step aside and
pave way for investigations to take place. One thing that surprises me is the
rate at which the embattled cabinet secretary is being defended by several
entities. There is no doubt that Ms. Anne Waiguru is being shielded by the
presidency. The recent dismissal of a motion meant to impeach her for the third
time by the Speaker of the National Assembly , Justin Muturi, is a clear
indicator that the Speaker acted on orders from ‘above’. As I have written
before, Mr. Muturi epitomizes the real definition of incompetence; being
partisan in matters of national importance by inclining towards his political
nest. If a motion has met the threshold demanded for it to proceed to the next
stage of being debated, I see no need to stifle it. The National Assembly
Speaker has turned out to be a demagogue that endangers Kenya’s posterity.
Other
individuals who are defending Waiguru are the so-called ‘feminists’. Let’s face
it. It seems the fad right now is to be a feminist. I have interacted with some
of these self-proclaimed ‘feminists’ and clearly they ooze a lot of ignorance
on what feminism pertains. Most of them claim that feminism is about equality. This
is good but the current cadre of ‘feminists’ tends to push for women power even
in situations where women leaders are committing economic crimes such as
looting of public finances. Let’s take a moment to meditate and be realistic.
Through
my undergraduate studies at the university, I was a faithful intellectual of
two social science disciplines, Economics and Sociology. Through Sociology,
feminism is all about according women equal rights and opportunities in the
society by denouncing the societal bottleneck in the name of male chauvinism
that is very repressive. I strongly believe in the philosophy of women
empowerment and I have never tolerated any non-sense that is occasioned by
chauvinistic tendencies displayed and exhibited by the male gender.
However,
we should develop a clear understanding when it comes to the upholding of the
values of honesty and integrity especially in a state office. I have heard of
several proclamations on how women in high profile positions have been ejected
out of office because of their gender. The following individuals have been
cited as examples of this vilification: Nancy Baraza the former Deputy Chief
Justice, Gladys Boss Shollei the former Chief Registrar of the Judiciary and
Charity Ngilu aka Mama Rainbow. The commonality among the aforementioned
individuals is their involvement in societal vices. Except for Charity Ngilu
who is suspended as the cabinet secretary for Lands, the other two were
replaced by women. Anne Atieno Amadi took over as Shollei’s position while
Kalpana Rawal replaced Nancy Baraza. So before we come out guns blazing on the purported
victimization of women in public service, it will be a big honour if we get the
details and facts right.
So
why does Waiguru and other CSs whose ministries are irredeemably corrupt
deserve to be shown the door? In December 2nd 2014, after a Cabinet
Meeting, the following statement was issued and I quote: “the roles of Cabinet
Secretaries have been widened. They now have greater oversight in sanctioning
procurement in MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) and SAGAs
(Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies), formerly a preserve of Principal
Secretaries. They will now also approve work, procurement and cash flow plans”.
No addition on this, CSs should take responsibility of their dockets. A chief
executive has the duty to ensure that his entity has a vibrant and financially
healthy system.
Corruption
is embedded in the whole government from the Judiciary, the Executive and
Parliament. Comments recently made by the Chief Justice, Dr. Willy Mutunga,
only seek to cement this reality. Parliament itself has been embroiled in a
scam in which shs.500 million was swindled and the National Assembly Speaker
acknowledged it. The leader of majority in the National Assembly, Aden Duale,
also confessed that corruption is the norm in the three arms of the government.
There is also a time that President Kenyatta talked about corruption in the
Office of the President and how the individuals promoting the avarice were
going to be met by the full force of the law.
One
of the major weaknesses of the ruling Jubilee coalition is the perfection of
the art of double-speak and double-standards and supposedly kusema na kutotenda as well as kusema na
kutender. If the president
acknowledged the fact that his office is bedeviled with corruption, then went
ahead to say that the country is fine a couple of days ago what does this
imply? And mark you on Friday this week a special committee has been formed by
the president to come up with plans and strategies to weed out corruption. It doesn’t
sound good for our beloved president to appear to be a political dilettante.
Parliament
also needs to be effective in its role in exercising oversight on the usage of
public funds. The problem with our parliamentarians is that they politicize
issues that deal with corruption. This depicts a clear lack of leadership.
Parliament should be focusing on strengthening the Economic Crimes Act by
passing laws that make the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission to be a
powerful anti-corruption body, creating a special court that deals with
corruption so that cases dealing with graft are not delayed and hence derailed,
and also enacting laws that any individual deemed corrupt in the past should
NEVER be allowed to hold a state position in the present as well as in the
future.
If
Aden Duale admits that corruption is alive and kicking in the government, then
as the majority leader he should marshal his colleagues and ensure that tough
laws that call for zero-tolerance on graft are enacted as fast as possible. The
‘Tyranny of Numbers’ needs to be taken advantage of by the ruling Jubilee
coalition.
The
creation of a ‘lootocracy’ state has
really tainted and dented our country’s image regionally and internationally. Apparently,
the New York Times had this as its headline a few days ago; An Anti-corruption Plea in Kenya: Please
Just Steal a Little. In addition, several countries namely United Kingdom,
United States, France, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Japan, Sweden,
Switzerland and Canada have threatened to ban Kenyan leaders mentioned in cases
of corruption from travelling to these countries. May be corruption is becoming
a new tourist attraction. This is a laughable tragedy. It is high time for the
Jubilee honchos to rise up and sweep off the mess of resource plundering and
squandering that has become the second name of the current regime; the shs.100
million Hustler’s jet saga, the shs.13 billion NSSF and Tasia financial scandal,
the shs.1.3 trillion Standard Gauge Railway scam, the shs.22 billion laptops
procurement impropriety, the shs.791 million NYS scandal, the misappropriation
of the shs.250 billion Eurobond, the shs.11 billion skewed procurement by the
Ministry of Devolution and Planning, the shs.3.8 billion spending on a single
day by the Interior and Coordination of National Government ministry, the shs.3
billion Anglo-Leasing pay out, the shs.8 billion Karen land saga, the Weston
Hotel and Lang’ata Road Primary School land grabbing among others.
Enough
has been said and more needs to be done as far as corruption is concerned. The buck
stops with the president. If he doesn’t act with an iron fist on this matter,
then the rot will spread deeply and widely. A strong political goodwill will
make the fight on graft stronger and more stronger. But if state officials like
the CS for Interior Major Gen. (Rtd) Joseph Nkaissery are going to intimidate
the media for reporting cases on corruption, then the evil is with us to stay.
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