Tainted anti-graft czars have killed war against corruption

Philip Kinisu is the fifth so-called anti-corruption Czar that has fallen, floored by the very dragon he was supposed to slay and eradicate.

Yet no reasonable Kenyan is surprised when those supposed to lead the war against corruption become victims of the monster.

From the days of Harun Mwau, Aaron Ringera, PLO Lumumba, Mumo Matemu and now Philip Kinisu, chairpersons of anti-corruption commissions were never meant to slaughter the dragon of corruption that is too powerful to scare or stop.

By their unknown prowess against corruption, chairpersons of anti-corruption commissions are appointed, not because they are beyond reproach but compromised, and not to eliminate corruption but mollify donors and other anti-corruption lobby groups.

And tragically, their real job is not to expose but conceal mega powerful graft that has put them in office and will sacrifice them to the crocodiles of graft fighting back and donor countries fearful of graft.  

Anti-graft czars are not meant to fight corruption or stay long in the commissions.

They are foot soldiers of top corruption, expendable when necessary. In the meantime, they can use their office to make money.

In the fight against graft, all five chairpersons of anti-graft commissions have failed to dent corruption.

However, that failure does not solely emanate from anti-corruption commissions and parliamentary committees, but primarily those who sponsor them.

Had Kenyans looked at the histories of chairs of anti-corruption bodies, except for PLO Lumumba, they would have discovered they were beneficiaries of graft whose fight against the scourge would be suicidal to them and their benefactors.

In Kenya, no honest people like PLO Lumumba or John Githongo will be allowed to chair any government anti-corruption institution.

WHY GRAFT FLOURISHES
When I was elected chairman of the PAC in April 1981, the State moved in against me, with President Moi threatening to dissolve the committee if I did not resign.

Corrupt civil servants protested that I would use the committee to witch-hunt them.

Since the President’s threat was neither fair nor right and charges of witch hunting were baseless, I refused to budge.

But State finally forced an election that voted me out of the chairmanship supposedly to “save” the committee from dissolution but in reality to subject it to the dictates of the Executive.

Thereafter, the committee could no longer expose corruption; it could only conceal it.

A chairperson of the committee would even tell us that this was our only chance to get what we wanted from permanent secretaries anxious to conceal their corruption.

Strangely though, only one or two of those appointed to chair anti-graft institutions was known to have a history of fighting graft.

People seem contented or even convinced that even a beneficiary of corruption can commit suicide and champion the fight against graft.

Other than the folly of allowing the corrupt to fight corruption, graft thrives in Kenya because, instead of our capitalism fighting graft as social democracy has done in Scandinavia and Europe, its greed and the philosophy of getting rich by whatever means necessary has only allowed it to thrive.

Our system has no reason or the will to fight corruption. Instead, we live in a jungle society where it is natural for meat eaters like hyenas to eat grass eaters like sheep.

In Kenya, corruption also thrives because it has powerful beneficiaries who preserve it as a means of getting rich while the poor are too weak to fight it.

GRIM FUTURE
Unfortunately, donors who want to see corruption fought are also not dependable because, often, they put their interests above those of fighting graft and poverty.

The EACC will not eradicate graft. It was created to preserve, not eliminate corruption.

Only the top leadership will end it, not because of pressure, but conviction that our collective survival demands its total elimination.

But if leaders give lip service to the fight against graft or live by it in the dark, then Kenya is doomed.

As things stand, the situation is rosy for graft. Leaders lack integrity to fight it. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution of ending it and ordinary people don’t know how to fight it.

Nor will corruption be ended by professionals but persons of integrity. Without integrity, corruption will continue to sink the country until it hits rock bottom.

But why does corruption in Kenya not provoke seismic anger like in other countries? Without anger we can never hope to end graft.