Cohesion will help defeat corruption

Last Thursday, many Kenyans held their breath as they waited to hear what President Uhuru Kenyatta was going to say, or even what he was going to do.

Some years ago when he came to Parliament to give the same address to the nation, he brought with him a number of files.

These were handed over to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and resulted in several Cabinet Secretaries losing their jobs.

Given all that has been going on regarding corrupt deals in the recent past, one would not blame Kenyans for expecting something similar.

Well, it did not happen.

ACHIEVEMENTS

So what is going to happen? The President did enumerate the various achievements of the past one year and, towards the end of his speech, he brought in the issue of corruption as the major stumbling block to what we are capable of achieving as a nation.

He did promise that people who will be found to be sabotaging our economy will be punished as per the law.

My feeling, however, is that many Kenyans do not want promises. They want action on those who may be known to have been involved in corrupt deals. Many — including myself — expected the President to come with several files like last time.

DAMS

There has been a lot of talk about dams that were never built. Is it that none of those who were involved is known?

Some time ago, there was the issue of maize traders and maize farmers. The traders were able to sell maize to the government stores while the genuine farmers could not. Would it be possible that none of those people are known?

Talking of maize, there was an irrigation project that was supposed to produce plenty of maize. What happened? Could it be possible that there was sabotage in play? Who did it?

There are many questions that one would want to ask, but the bottom line is that Kenyans now want to see action.

It is true that there are other considerations such as political repercussions, but as a nation we may want to ask ourselves which one is the lesser evil.

HANDSHAKE

The famous handshake and bridge building initiative has introduced a breath of relief from the political tensions created by the last elections. This is good for the nation.

Last Wednesday saw an interesting mix of government — at least the President — and the men who are supposedly the opposition going around the country for the registration of the Huduma Namba. That spoke volumes and the more of that is seen to happen the more national cohesion shall be built.

Only a cohesive nation can effectively and completely wipe out evils such as corruption and others.

Fr Wamugunda is the dean of students and sociology lecturer at the University of Nairobi. [email protected]