How corruption and power have been joined at the hip since uhuru

When the first so-called war against corruption was announced in Parliament most of today’s Kenyans of voting age were not born. That war was declared by Vice-President Daniel arap Moi in 1968 and front-paged by the Daily Nation.

The rain began beating us at independence. That is when we reached for the umbrella of cover-up. That is when and why populist Nyandarua MP Josiah Mwangi Kariuki aka JM would graphically warn that Kenya was becoming home to 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars.

For his troubles JM was assassinated on March 2, 1975 when Kenya was just 12 years old. Thomas Joseph Mboya, alias TJ, with powerful friends in America and in the local trade union movement, on the other hand, just schemed for power. A bullet ended his ambition and life on July 5, 1969.

Kenya was five and Mboya 39. Struggles for power and corruption in Kenya feed on each other. The Kenyatta I succession wars began as soon as Kenya became independent; the rat race of wanton plunder of public resources climaxed in Kenyatta’s twilight years.

When Mr Moi became President in 1978 one of his pet topics was war against corruption. But as his reign neared its end after more than two decades, opposing politicians and a fatigued populace were united in anger against grand corruption in his government.

FREE MONEY

But the proceeds of the Goldenberg mega scam and printing of money funded the 1992 General Election. The availability of easy or free money, which resulted in massive inflation, coupled with an opposition divided by proximity of power, handed Mr Moi victory.

Enter Mr Mwai Kibaki in 2002. Kenyans readily backed him to root out corruption. They were crushed. The new administration was soon mired in the security procurement scandals better known as Anglo-Leasing, which the late Senator Mutula Kilonzo famously called Anglo-Fleecing.

In 2007, Mr Raila Odinga assembled the best and brightest ever electoral war machine christened the Pentagon. He anchored his campaign in a graft free Kenya. Mr Odinga remains the presumed winner of that year’s presidential poll rigged out by the power of the powerful.

The Grand Coalition Government that was created to end the violence that ensued is not famous for fighting corruption, but infamous for fighting itself incessantly. However, since 2014 Mr Odinga brilliantly tied the Jubilee government to mega-corruption and fought it tooth and nail.

DICTATORSHIP

Then on March 9 he joined the very government he had just days earlier called a corrupt and malevolent dictatorship. When he and President Kenyatta publicly shook hands on their secret contract on Kenya, he said they were now united in the war against corruption.

Nobody has this year spoken out against corruption as passionately, eloquently, graphically and angrily as embattled Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua. If it were not for 55 years of theft of public resources, he says, Kenya would be a developed country.

And then comes the clincher: He tells President Kenyatta not to relent in his war on corruption, but, more importantly, he should scrutinise his high table because, kikulacho ki nguoni mwako. In other words, the lords of graft are among the President’s nearest and dearest.

Dr Mutua does not name Deputy President William Ruto yet it is he that he has in mind. But Dr Mutua has a personal political agenda that will be well served by tying Mr Ruto to corruption.

Governor Mutua, an ally of the President’s, launched his presidential run in July of 2017 when he also started his run for re-election. Mr Ruto is the legal heir apparent and pole sitter. Enter Nairobi Governor Gideon Mbuvi aka Sonko.

GRAFT WAR

He says the graft war is selective and wonders why suspects have been denied bail which they are entitled to. He demands that Cabinet Secretaries whose juniors have been arraigned over graft step down.

Sonko, an ally of the DP’s, consistently accuses senior public servants close to the President of working day and night to ensure he fails in his gubernatorial duties. In other words, the so-called graft war has been weaponised specifically for the Kenyatta II succession battles.

There will be no end to campaigning especially after the Coast dumped Mr Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) for Mr Ruto’s Team Tangatanga. Tangatanga is setting the pace for ODM, now an accessory to the governing Jubilee.

And time will tell how Mr Kenyatta’s Jubilee and Mr Odinga’s ODM will fight corruption differently from previous wars.

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