MPs’ selective assault on corruption self-serving ploy to preserve interests

It was good of opposition leader Raila Odinga to warn of a reverse to dictatorship with the current onslaught against the Judiciary driven by the Legislature. That President Uhuru Kenyatta is backing the political classes in rebellion against the entire philosophy of law and order should indeed be worrying.

The problem, however, is that Mr Odinga’s barking is meaningless. The leader of the opposition has been reduced to a toothless bulldog as his MPs side with the lynch mobs assembled by the government.

That is why garrulous National Assembly Majority leader Aden Duale — and other Jubilee leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate, who make up a large segment of the species that lawyer and columnist Ahmednasir Abdullahi memorably described over the weekend as “test tube” politicians — could afford to laugh at Mr Odinga’s sterile barking.

They know very well that their Cord alliance counterparts in both Houses, such as Moses Wetangula and Francis Nyenze, are fully “in the pocket”.

ODM leader Odinga and his Wiper partner, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka, may make a lot of empty noise from outside Parliament, but the sad reality is that in the Legislature, the opposition is dead and buried. Senate and National Assembly Minority leaders and whips are fully in tandem with their Majority counterparts when it comes to protecting the false and self-serving principle of supremacy of the Legislature.

The fallout precipitated by the impeachment of Embu Governor Martin Nyaga Wambora has had the effect of uniting MPs from across the divide so they can clip the wings of governors, who have stolen the thunder from them at the constituency and county level. They are also united against a Judiciary they think is robbing them of the right to ride roughshod over all other institutions.

Now, this is not about Mr Wambora, a man I cannot pick out in a crowd. However, I followed closely the charges that got him impeached by the Embu County Assembly.

He was certainly guilty of taking liberties with procurement procedures, but I did not see any grand theft or larceny, by Kenyan standards, for impeachment. It was more about a power struggle in Embu politics driven and directed by powerful local MPs and senators.

MONOPOLY TO LOOT

When the matter went to the Senate for confirmation, all the proceedings suggested legislators intent on putting governors in their place rather than dispassionate examination of the matter at hand.

Subsequently senators launched a declaration of war on other governors facing audit queries who, in turn, along with Mr Wambora, sought and got temporary reprieve from the courts.

That is where we stand now as the senators team up with their putative National Assembly rivals to take the war to the courts.

Let us get this straight. I have always advocated zero tolerance to corruption. In my book any leader caught with his hand in the till should be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

I have also been against the displays of opulence put on by governors more interested in long limousines, big motorcades, armies of flunkies, flags, official mansions, and being addressed as “Your Excellency” rather than service.

The Judiciary and its penchant for protecting big thieves from arrest and prosecution and meddling in matters outside its remit has also often drawn my ire.

However, our legislators did not earn the sobriquet “MPigs” for nothing. They should be the last persons to pontificate against corruption. They have absolutely no interest in the public good, only in protecting their monopoly to loot and abuse power and privilege. This is the common agenda they share across party divides after abandoning their watchdog role.

All now, including Mr Odinga’s opposition troops, are at the service of a selfish agenda that wants to silence all voices of dissent and independent oversight so that the thieves and looters of Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing vintage can make their powerful comeback in the corridors of power.

If our MPs want to demonstrate that they are intent on upholding ethical leadership as outlined in the Constitution, they must start by seeking the impeachment of all leaders at all levels who may be facing criminal charges. They must look upwards to their “controllers” rather than sideways to those eclipsing them at home.

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