Crooks everywhere, but there are a few good men too

NO, CORRUPTION, of course, is not an African disease. All countries have corruption, but in Africa, it has a unique look and feel.

Perhaps that is one reason the story of Mr Michael Misick, who was forced to resign recently as the prime minister of the Turks and Caicos islands, the British dependency in the Caribbean, smells African.

The Turks and Caicos was colonised by Spain in the 1500s, but were seized by the British in 1799. Many of its residents are descended from the survivors of a Spanish slave ship, which was wrecked off the islands in 1841.

That is why Mr Misick has that well-cut and carefully nourished look of a top Kenyan CEO.

As told by The Independent, though Misick was prime minister, he still had time to be a lawyer, and held three other ministries — of tourism, civil aviation, and planning. We had forgotten, he was also a real estate agent.

Like your average African politician, when Misick became a big man, he broke with his first wife and married LisaRaye McCoy Misick. Those who watch soaps and sitcoms might know her as an actress in the hit American sitcom, All Of Us.

When be became prime minister, Misick was worth Sh4 million. By the time he left office, his fortune had miraculously multiplied 4,000 times to Sh16 billion!

Wearing his estate agent’s hat, Misick got a piece of most of the premium land that came on the market, sold to developers, and got his cut.

Power and money got to Misick’s head, and he split with Ms McCoy Misick, who has taken him to court to get her piece of the pie. And she is singing.

The court has heard that when he was courting her, Mr Misick used to splash Sh8 million per return flight on a private jet to fly her between her Hollywood home and the islands.

He poured Sh22 million into jewellery, and charged Sh69 million (of taxpayers’ money) of leisure and pleasure on an American Express card in 2006.

Ms Misick might be spilling the beans, but she did well out of the attentions of the disgraced PM. In one month when he was particularly generous, he showered her with clothes worth Sh16 million.

When he was asked why he had rewarded himself over-generously, Mr Misick gave a reason that would be familiar to all of us. He said he had ‘‘done a lot’’ for his country.

Still, there was a tone of regret in Mr Misick’s statement, and at that point he departed from the African tradition.
HOWEVER, THE CASE OF THE TURKS and Caicos is important in the discussion about corruption because it points to what might be the future of our countries if we don’t stop the scourge. The island has now, again, been placed under loose direct rule by Britain.

When African leaders eventually eat their countries to the bone, our nations will be so broken, they might only be saved — as happened with Sierra Leone and Liberia — by being taken over the by the UN. Or, at worst, new colonial powers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in Italy, the Sicilian part of the country has been nearly ungovernable for years because of the hold the Mafia has in the region.

If it hadn’t been for one, man, Giovanni Falcone, perhaps the Mafia would be the government in Sicily. Mr Falcone is a determined and fearless magistrate.

According to The Observer, he has signed an impressive 500 Mafia arrest warrants in the last four years, from the desk of his predecessor who was murdered by the Cosa Nostra.

Few people can live like Falcone. He escaped death after the Mafia blew up his office. Because they are trying to get him, even when Mr Falcone walks down the corridor to the coffee machine, he requires an armed escort.

But perhaps the best measure of Falcone’s guts is that in these recession-hit times when millions of people are losing their jobs and can’t find work, when recently an advertisement was put out for 55 magistrates in Sicily, only four people applied!

Which means that while Falcone might be winning his battles against the Mafia, unless more people join in the fight, this is a war he will ultimately lose.

For that reason, as Kenya argues and quarrels over whether the Judiciary is doing its job or not, there is Falcone. That is if one of these days, Chief Justice Evan Gicheru feels outnumbered by his political critics and calls it quits, and the government decides it needs an expatriate gun for the job.

cobbo@nation.co.ke