Kalonzo should address graft accusations, not point fingers

It is that season where propaganda is bound to hit beyond fever-pitch.

It will rise so high that even geniuses will find it difficult to distinguish truth from lies.

Now, propaganda is not entirely a bad thing. It should not be confused with lies and rumour mongering.

My dictionary, The English Oxford Advanced Learners’, defines propaganda as “ideas or statements that may be false or exaggerated and that are used in order to gain support for a political leader, party, etc”.

You see, propaganda is a tool of trade in politics, and this is the highest season for politics in Kenya’s cycle.

But in the noise and haste, we are better advised not to lose sight of the things that define us as a nation, things that determine our life (and death).

PROPAGATE PROPAGANDA

It is one thing to propagate propaganda, respond to it or ignore and totally a different thing when truth on the future and destiny of a generation is threatened by political verbal gymnastics.

On Tuesday, the National Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Co-ordination Board released some very unsettling allegations.

Granted, the face of the NGO Co-ordination board is not that one can describe as clean by any standards.

In fact, majority of Kenyans do not understand how and why Fazul Mahamed is still holding public office.

There have been just a bit too many instances when aspersions have been cast on the character of the man whose official designation is the executive director of the board supposed to vet and approve organisations based on integrity of their directors.

BOARD DISSOLVED

At one instance, his line Cabinet Secretary dissolved the board and sent him packing.

How the board was reconvened and Mahamed reinstated is a story for another day.

But in the spirit of the ad hominem rule, today, I would like to focus on the office rather that the man.

That second day of May, the NGO coordinator announced to the country that an organisation under his office could not explain how it spent over Sh190 million of donor funds.

Included in the package was some Sh50 million that was meant to, specifically, fund the building some classes and feed starving children in some region in the country.

GRAFT ALLEGATION

Allow me to digress a bit though. Cases of corruption are common in the country. Hardly a month goes without a scandal of some proportion or another involving a public office and/or officer is “unearthed”.

In most cases, it is tax payers’ money that is involved and more than half of the time, fingers are pointed at the Government.

Ordinarily, a graft allegation that involves less that Sh500 million will be dismissed as a non-issue since, lately, scandals in Kenya involve billions of shillings.

Sh200 million should be treated as facilitation for a scandal in the making, going by our standards.

But Fazul’s latest alarm bell is slightly different!

MUSYOKA FOUNDATION

The allegations are being made against former Vice President Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka and his family-run Kalonzo Musyoka Foundation.

Mr Musyoka is not only a former Vice President to whom, going by the country’s past leaders’ appetite for amassing wealth, Sh200million should be pocket change, but also a possible future Deputy President whose National Super Alliance (Nasa) coalition is going to the elections in three months’ time brandishing an anti-corruption badge.

Granted, in political competition, we should not rule out the possibility that Fazul is being malicious and keen to spoil Nasa’s chances but for purposes of national good, it is incumbent upon Mr Musyoka to deal with the “facts” presented.

When presented with the opportunity to respond to the accusations on Wednesday, Mr Musyoka bungled it and predictably chose to engage in a blame game against his political opponents.

ORIGIN OF VENDATTA

Despite having had all the time to gather and present counter facts to the accusations based on books of accounts, the former Vice President chose to finger the current Deputy President William Ruto accusing him of vendetta.

Even in this, Mr Musyoka failed to demonstrate the origin of the vendetta between himself and his successor in the second most powerful political office in the land.

Instead, the Nasa presidential ticket running-mate went to great heights to warn the country that similar allegations were being prepared against his teammates in the wagon.

This is not very good for the country, but two glaring conclusions can be made from Kalonzo’s woes and his reaction. Either Mr Fazul is on a fishing expedition targeting opposition leaders or the alternative government is as corrupt, if not more, as it accuses its current counterpart to be.

If the former is the position, Mr Musyoka has recourse in legally pursuing Mr Mohamed both as a person and as a public officer.

But if the latter is true, then we are in a for big circus where, like the fabled boy who cried wolf, Mr Musyoka risks his ability to be believed in future when he makes honestly true claims.
Like philosopher William Caxton said, men hardly believe one who is known to lie.

Michael Cherambos is a social, political and economic commentator based in Nairobi. [email protected]