Queries over turnover of bosses at anti-graft agency

Someone said that the position of Chairman at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission is jinxed. Is it really? Obviously whoever thinks so must have carefully watched the goings-on at the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

None of the chairmen that have served in that position has left that office in peace. As someone else said, they have all been hounded out of office. That explains why someone would come up with the narrative about the office being jinxed.

The latest casualty is Philip Kinisu. The Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs established that there was an issue of conflict of interest related to a company he co-owns with his family and which had gone into dealings with the National Youth Service which, in turn, is under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission.

He should perhaps have mentioned that bit when he was being recruited. Those who brought this matter forward when they did should also have mentioned it at the time to save time. But is that not in the nature and form of corruption?

PLACE OF RUMOURS

Whatever the case may be, there are things we may never really get to know. Just like we shall never get to know the real truth about what was going on at the National Youth Service and who the real drivers were. What we know is that the issue cost a cabinet secretary her job and now the chairman.

Kenya is a great place for rumours. We hear all manner of things about what those in high office have done in the past, which is sometimes seen as the reason they are where they are. There are people who seem to know everything about those who are entrepreneurs in the tendering world and who they work with. Some of this sounds so real.

The problem is that even where there is wrongdoing, no one is ever brought to justice. Do you remember the days of the maize scandal during the nusu mkate government? Was anybody ever charged?

Let us face it. Many of us know and accept that corruption is the biggest cancer that ails our social and economic fabric. It is deeply entrenched and the will to fight it so feeble that eradicating it is a real uphill task.

It cannot be a wonder, then, that successive chairmen of the EACC and commissioners walked away with their heads bent in shame. The fact that there is a whole generation that thinks that corruption is the only route to prosperity does not help matters.

Wamugunda is dean of students, University of Nairobi [email protected]