Corrupt mindset in us Kenyans is truly a disaster

On Thursday last week we at the University of Nairobi held a little humble event to celebrate the launch of the very first Kenyan Satellite which was activated on Friday, May 11, at the Japanese Space Centre. It is good for people to note that this Satellite was developed by our own scholars and students. While I was sitting there listening to good music and the details this was achieved, I remembered a cartoon I saw last Tuesday on the Daily Nation. It had a picture of “a” Satellite with a caption: “If only it could assist in corruption monitoring?”

Once again we unfortunately have news of mega corruption at the NYS. Apparently some Sh9 billion have been embezzled. How? By who? At what level does such abuse of public resources happen? Whatever the case may be, when one is in charge, the buck has to stop with them. The last time –about two years ago – the NYS was under siege the damage was Sh1 billion and a Cabinet Secretary lost her job. Not that Sh1 billion is any less damage to public finance.

MORAL PROBLEM

We must accept – sadly – that we Kenyans do have a real moral problem. It is a moral problem because the ethos of corruption has become so engrained in the minds of Kenyans that one cannot think of the current Kenyan culture without taking into account the evil of corruption.

And by the way this is not just grand corruption in public institutions. No. It is a whole way of understanding the world we live in which permeates our whole spectrum of understanding ourselves and our relationships and which has over time become so entrenched in our minds that we have accepted it as part of being Kenyan even when it hurts us.

The secretary-general of the National Council of Churches in Kenya said on Thursday that corruption should be declared a national disaster. I do agree with him although I think it is a little too late.

POWER AND RICHES

That declaration should have come many years ago. At this point in our history we have many people in very high places in society who control power and riches and they know no other way of attaining that kind of status. They rose through the ranks of corrupt systems and they cannot understand any other way. This is the reason ordinary people are killed during elections. Some people have to get into power at all costs.

As long as politicians seek power to access public resources, even matatu drivers will do anything on the road and ignore every other road user and any form of driving etiquette in an effort to get passengers. All this and many other Kenyan behaviour patterns are part of our corrupt mindset. It is truly a disaster.    

 The writer is Dean of Students at the University of Nairobi. [email protected]