Corruption in Kenya a figment of imagination
What you need to know:
- In the past 10 years alone, the government has allocated Sh12.5 billion to fighting corruption, much of it paying an assortment of experts to speak, sing, dance and perform to the public.
- People who were defending corruption suspects are now senior public officials leading the prosecution of their former clients. Those who accused them vehemently and led the anti-corruption war are in court, on record as their advocates.
- Corruption has become a political big stick conveniently wheeled out to deal with opponents and undermine those who have worked hard, scrimping and saving to construct magnificent edifices. In reality, corruption does not exist.
Once the tribunal investigating Mr Mumo Matemo and Mrs Irene Keino completes its work, Kenyans will have to face up to the fact that the country has been challenging a phantom to a duel.
Corruption is only the figment of a fertile imagination, fed and fattened by green-eyed political jealousy and feverish rumour-mongering.
“Five Years On”, a 2009 report by the Africa Centre for Open Governance reviewing the performance of the anti-corruption commission found that there were not too many investigations to speak of, let alone convictions.
Fighting corruption had not produced any predictable results since the enactment of the Prevention of Corruption law in 1956. Its subsequent amendment in 1993, the overhaul of the legal framework and the establishment of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, the passage of the Public Officer Ethics Act and the Public Procurement and Disposal Act, have all not been enough to keep even one person in jail.
Granted, former National Aids Control Council boss Margaret Gachara was sentenced to three years in jail for graft-related offences but President Mwai Kibaki pardoned her and let her out of jail in months.
Subsequently, former PS Rebecca Nabutola, Kenya Tourism Board boss Dr Achieng Ongóngá and Mr Timothy Muriuki were sent to jail in 2012 but are out pending the hearing of their appeal. Last year, former PS Sylvestor Mwaliko was fined Sh3 million for abuse of office in relation to the Anglo Leasing corruption scandal.
CAREER FOR LAWYERS
The evolution of the anti-corruption effort, from being an ordinary crime investigated by the police into a fully fledged career for lawyers had generated 632 case files by the time the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission was taking over from the Anti-Corruption Police Unit and its predecessor, the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority.
Last year, less than half of the 4,006 complaints received by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission were within the institution’s mandate. A staggering 1,132 were totally irrelevant, 65 were incomplete and 178 required no further action.
In the past 10 years alone, the government has allocated Sh12.5 billion to fighting corruption, much of it paying an assortment of experts to speak, sing, dance and perform to the public.
Each performance has ended in tears.
The Matemu-Keino tribunal will be the second after a judicial commission sealed the fate of the original anti-graft czar, John Harun Mwau, a star marksman associated with a beard. His successor, a Shakespeare-quoting retired judge, could not be spared parliamentary wrath after a five-year term. His successor, who insists on speaking in Martin Luther King Jr cadences, suffered a similar fate.
People who were defending corruption suspects are now senior public officials leading the prosecution of their former clients. Those who accused them vehemently and led the anti-corruption war are in court, on record as their advocates.
Amid the swirling claims of cash stuffed in suitcases being exchanged with green maize in the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry; honest suppliers of oxygen being denied their payment by labelling them Anglo Fleecing; oil importation scandals in which no money was lost; maize imports that saved the country money, Kenya has become a middle-income economy.
Corruption has become a political big stick conveniently wheeled out to deal with opponents and undermine those who have worked hard, scrimping and saving to construct magnificent edifices. In reality, corruption does not exist.
