President needs to take action on those stealing from babies

A couple of weeks ago, Nigeria’s First Lady Aisha Buhari caused quite a stir when she warned her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, that she would not support him in the next election if he did not shake up his government, which she claimed had been hijacked by a small group of people.

Mrs Buhari did what most African women would never dare to do — she attacked her husband in public.

When asked about his reaction to his wife’s statement, the Nigerian president responded, in typical male fashion, that his wife had no business interfering in State affairs because she belonged in the kitchen and in the bedroom.

Unfortunately, President Buhari did not make these sexist comments in Abuja, but in Germany, where he was meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (We can only speculate what was going through Ms Merkel’s mind at the time.)

Reactions to Mrs Buhari’s comments have been mixed in Nigeria, but a large number of people seem to support her.

In fact, it is possible that her open criticism of her husband’s governance style may influence other African first ladies to do the same.

If there is one first lady who should be emulating Mrs Buhari it is our very own Margaret Kenyatta, particularly in light of the Sh5 billion scandal at the Ministry of Health.

Reports indicate that funds intended for free maternity care in hospitals were diverted to individuals and private companies and that the electronic payment system at the ministry was manipulated to make double payments to vendors.

This particular scandal should concern both President Uhuru Kenyatta, who initiated the free maternity care programme, and the First Lady, whose Beyond Zero campaign aims to improve maternal and child health in Kenya.

The massive theft at the Health Ministry threatens to undermine both initiatives.

STATE ACCOUNTABILITY
If I were the First Lady, I would sit my husband down and ask him to roll a few heads.

In fact, I might even do an Aisha Buhari and threaten to not support him in the next election unless he sorts out the corruption monster in his government and until he weeds out criminal elements that are giving his administration a bad name.

Surveys indicate that Mrs Kenyatta is among the most popular and respected personalities in Kenya.

Some would argue that her popularity exceeds that of her husband.

If she were to stand for president herself, she might even garner the majority vote.

However, it is unlikely that the President would heed his wife’s warnings.

I am not sure what prevents Uhuru Kenyatta from facing corruption head-on, but it seems to me and to a lot of other people that the State and the President have been captured by criminal individuals and cartels who are making him do their bidding or forcing him to look the other way.

What else can explain the President’s resigned “Ngai!” response to questions about transparency in his government?

In the Moi — and to a lesser extent, the Kibaki — eras, it was easier to keep the Kenyan government on the straight and narrow path because Western donors wielded significant clout in the running of ministries.

So if millions of shillings went missing in a ministry, the donor would promptly threaten to withdraw all funding from that ministry.

This threat did not necessarily reduce levels of corruption in government, but it did inject some level of accountability in ministries.

THE CHINESE WAY
With increased domestic revenue collection and since the coming of China on the scene, Western donor influence on Kenyan affairs has reduced significantly.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, as donor dependency has a crippling effect on recipient economies.

But China’s cunning laissez-faire attitude towards corruption in Kenya — which has benefited Chinese State-owned companies enormously and placed our country in suffocating debt for generations — has made things worse.

We must remember that the Chinese Communist Party hands out the death sentence to corrupt government officials, yet it seems not to care if Kenyan officials steal from the mouths of babes and deny services to people because Chinese officials colluded with Kenyan leaders to loot the country’s resources.

When Mrs Kenyatta sits down to have a frank chat with her hubby, she might want to tell him that, like many people around him, the Chinese are not his true friends.

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