Eurobond saga gives us reason to doubt official explanations

The news, analysis and reactions to the Eurobond issue in the mainstream and social media have been fascinating, and saddening.

Predictably, most responses fell neatly into the pigeon holes that our tribal and political divides have created.

Those from the Mt Kenya and parts of Rift Valley regions were clear in defending the regime, repeatedly stating that no money was lost, and excusing the clear breaches of the Constitution and laws.

On the other hand, the rest have been certain that billions have been stolen even though they cannot quite explain how this has happened given the complexities and intricacies of the deal.

Dr David Ndii and Sarah Elderkin have done the country a great service in breaking down the issues, presenting a strong case for the “bandit economy” that Chief Justice Willy Mutunga so aptly described.

But some of us have rushed to defend the regime even when we don’t really know what is going on.

One of the most important attributes of a democracy is a healthy scepticism when it comes to the exercise of power, even by those you support.

For we all know that power corrupts and the fact that we like those in power — be they our brothers, sisters or kinsmen — should never blind us to the possibility of abuse of power for corruption purposes.

And especially in a country like Kenya where grand corruption has set us back decades in terms of development, democracy and human rights, putting us at the top of the global charts of corruption.

SOMETHING TO HIDE

Surely, in this context, should we not be a wee hesitant in giving the regime the benefit of the doubt so easily?

Consider, too, the fact that just before the Eurobond issues, the country was taken by the NYS scandals.

Here at first it was that no money was lost; that the then Cabinet Secretary had blown the whistle on “tampering” of the IFMIS system before it could be exploited.

But then the truth came out and it turned out that hundreds of millions of shillings had in fact been lost.

In a country with democratic ethos, we should be suspicious immediately when those defending the regime focus not on the message, but on the messengers, attributing all sorts of ill-will on them.

They say that even a madman has his moments of sanity, and we should listen to what is said before tuning off.

The vitriol against Sarah Elderkin, for instance, not for what she explained but because of her professional and political association with Raila Odinga, has been shameful.

But that vitriol suggests that she is right; and lacking an adequate response, the attack dogs went for her person instead.

And so, too, with the calls to desist from discussing Eurobond apparently because the discussions were hurting the economy and would make it harder, and more expensive, to borrow in the future.

WISEN UP

Rather than respond to the arguments put forth by Dr David Ndii and Sarah Elderkin, we are being asked to “accept and move on.”

I doubt there could ever be a stronger signal to continue corruption than this, especially for a regime that has made ending corruption one of its legacy projects, one in which most of the country would like it to succeed.

We don’t have to agree with each other all the time and it could very well be that there is a perfect explanation for the missing US$1 billion that seems to have been left behind in a bank somewhere in the USA, but we have yet to get a reasonable explanation from the regime.

If we give those in power carte blanche simply because we like them, we will be in big trouble.

We did this before in 1963 with Jomo Kenyatta, and again in 1978 with Daniel Moi. The result was massive corruption, the end of democracy and unbelievable repression.

We don’t need to go there again.

Maina Kiai is a former Chair of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.