The chickens have come home to roost; will Kenya now have courage to act?
What you need to know:
- Now, the principles we have been preaching, including constitutional protection for institutions, have been prostituted in a fundamental way as a cover to serious corruption.
- The officials are variously described as “anxious and very broke”, “desperate for the chicken”, and an official is reported to have offered to give Mr Chirchir, now Energy Cabinet secretary, “some chicken so he can buy some things to take to his family”.
- My personal view is that the persons painted in the evidence presented to that court have no business managing an election, not even a cattle dip election.
Trevy Oyombra, the man the Serious Fraud Office of Britain presents as the high priest of “chicken” in its filings in court, has opened our eyes to a fundamental reality about our country: we are rotten, far more rotten than we imagined.
As a matter of fact, perhaps Kenya is a lot more corrupt than we can imagine.
Elections are one of the most sensitive processes in a country. They define who rules.
One would imagine that after the reforms we have put in place since the repeal of Section 2A in 1992, and given the presence of reformers in the nusu mkate government, that we had the election thing well sorted out. Clean procurement and clean management.
In any case, after all that bloodshed in 2007/8, one would imagine that it would be an abomination to even think about messing around with the electoral process, whether by inflating costs or opening it up to corruption.
'LET'S TALK AFTER'
Now, the principles we have been preaching, including constitutional protection for institutions, have been prostituted in a fundamental way as a cover to serious corruption.
The evidence presented in Regina V. Christopher Smith, Nicholas Smith, Timothy Forrester, Abdirahman Omar, and Smith & Ouzman is that contracting by the Interim Independent Electoral Commission was inflated by as much as 37 per cent.
And the procurement process was so shenzi that a broker could arrange to have coffee with seven members of the tender committee, the chairman would send an interested party an advertisement and invite them to quote (never mind that the party had received the information two days previously), a foreign printer would get copies of rival bids before their opening (with a blithe note from the broker to “have a scrutiny of these bidders and let’s talk after”), and that the same printer would get detailed explanations of how competing bidders would be disqualified, most probably on the most trivial of grounds.
'ANXIOUS AND VERY BROKE'
Dear reader, “have a scrutiny of these”: On May 7, 2010, the chief electoral officer of the IIEC, Major James Oswago, wrote to Smith & Ouzman, informing them that they had been awarded a contract to print 57,000 ballot papers for the South Mugirango by-election scheduled for June 10, 2010.
Was there a tender? I do not know.
The company wrote two replies, one indicating that the price was Sh1,037,400 (£7,140) and another one with the more honest figure of Sh718,200 (£5,130). That figure was varied three more times.
Finally, Major Oswago sent Smith & Ouzman an LPO for Sh1,394,120 and reduced the ballot quantity to 48,150.
The officials are variously described as “anxious and very broke”, “desperate for the chicken”, and an official is reported to have offered to give Mr Chirchir, now Energy Cabinet secretary, “some chicken so he can buy some things to take to his family”.
The picture painted in this document is of thoughtless, greedy, bribe-begging morons willing to do anything for money.
Now, I hope and pray that all this is not true. I also hope and pray that not every top official of that organisation was involved in setting corruption targets for tenders.
REQUEST LEGAL ASSISTANCE
As a matter of fact, it was a big organisation and only a few fellows were playing in the chicken league. But were there other leagues? And who was playing in them?
Politicians, as usual, have been adding two and three and, as usual, getting 20. They have drawn conclusions about the 2013 election on the basis of evidence for by-elections in 2009 and 2010.
However, my personal view is that the persons painted in the evidence presented to that court have no business managing an election, not even a cattle dip election.
Mr Keriako Tobiko should perhaps see if he can overcome what appears to be a natural aversion to the prosecution of high-level corruption, call the British High Commissioner and request legal assistance, appoint a team of investigators to collect the evidence from the Serious Fraud Office and other places, prosecute all those found culpable, and see to it that the courts escort them home — to Kamiti.
Of course, that is another hope and prayer.
*****
The 14-seater “Nissan” matatus are making a comeback. I think the speed governor is toast.
From the look of things, the age limit for motor vehicles will probably be next. Welcome back to the bandit society. And God help us on the roads, this coming holiday.
