Let’s forget this thing called war on corruption

There was a time in this country when people were afraid of being caught with their hands in the public till. While thieves still existed and did their thing, they were more covert and made serious attempts to avoid getting caught.

Corrupt government officials were more circumspect, and would spend lots of resources in trying to cover their trail after helping themselves to public resources. That time is now long gone.

Recent revelations of corrupt dealings at high levels of government serve to demonstrate just how far we have strayed from the straight and narrow path of probity.

People accused of carting away huge sums of money from government coffers are now appearing for interviews in the media, and even before parliamentary committees, to practically brag about how they did it.

Speculation is rife that a good number of the putative culprits will run for political office next year, and the odds are greater than even that they will win.

Every time a major scam was revealed to the public, the government has invariably chosen the path of confrontation rather than introspection and investigation. Top government officials choose to engage the media in a war of words, even issuing thinly veiled threats of censure disguised as complaints to regulatory authorities.

Attack-dogs are dispatched to media houses to discredit the reports, and to taint everyone even remotely suspected of supporting the claims of plunder as part of some wider conspiracy to bring down the government.

Unfortunately, a simple reading of history reveals that whatever the government vehemently denies is more likely to be taken as the truth.
Here’s the deal. The government cannot demonstrate its commitment to deal with the corrupt by sending attack dogs to shout from the rooftops every time a scandal is unearthed.

What this does it to embolden the thugs in government who have done so much to sully the reputation of the many upright public servants. It makes the work of law enforcers that much more difficult, since the conclusions are forced on them before any serious investigation is conducted.

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

We cannot claim to be serious in the fight against corruption if every time someone blows the whistle we go after them with the entire government machinery, asking them to retract their claims or else. In a country where anyone exposing grand corruption is at risk of sudden death, how do we convince the upright public servant that she can use existing mechanisms to clean up her workplace?

How do we convince the eager newbie that not everyone is on the take, and that the majority of public servants are satisfied to just do their jobs well?

One would hope that those occupying the top echelons of government would never speak about a scandal until they have all the facts at their fingertips, and then they would only speak to announce what measures have been taken to punish the wrong-doers and prevent a recurrence.

In a government committed to rooting out corruption one would expect that reports of massive theft would be treated with the seriousness they deserve, and answers obtained in a matter of days.

Unfortunately, we are not like that. We have been brought up to expect crookedness in public officials, and the higher they go, the more crookedness we expect.

We have elevated blatant thugs to the status of national heroes, and mercilessly crushed any incorruptible person that dared raise their voice. We are irredeemably corrupt, and we need to cease any pretence at fighting this scourge.

Let us disband the jobless, toothless Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. Let us allow parliamentary committees to focus on more important and achievable issues than this pretended fight against corruption. We have failed and, in failing to admit failure, we fail even harder!

Atwoli is associate professor of psychiatry and dean, School of Medicine, Moi University; [email protected]