Let everyone carry their own cross

Today I wish to address an issue that has been in the mouths of many of us for many years. The good thing about this matter is that it is now receiving serious attention from where it matters.

Of all institutions, the Presidency – the President – this time round seems to be truly focused on the question of our chronic cancer which is corruption.

It is a pity that at some point in our 55 years of independence, corruption was institutionalised in almost all sectors of our social, economic and political life.

As I say, now there seems to be no joke about making efforts to slay this dragon. There have been murmurs about activities in the KPC, KPLC, NHIF, NSSF, National Youth Service, NCPB, Police, Judiciary and so on in the past.

GIVEN BAIL

The list is endless. With the President’s efforts, now it is no longer whispers. People are being held accountable. The trouble with our systems is that when people are arrested and taken to court, they are then given bail and, in many cases, that is the end of the story. One hopes that this time the relevant institutions will do what it takes to eradicate this culture.

I have said it before in this column that corruption will only end when the names of those who are involved at whatever level are called out in the open and action taken against them.

If there are some senior people who have caused smaller people to be corrupt, then their names must be brought out so that Kenyans will know that as a nation we are determined to straighten out matters.

SENIOR OFFICIALS

There are places where senior officials who had been found to be corrupt were taken out and shot dead. That may be an extreme in a democracy but corruption is an act of killing a nation.

Each one of us who is over 18 years of age has a national ID or a passport which identifies him or her as a Kenyan. Granted we are all from different ethnic communities in the country.

The most basic fact, however, is that each one of us is a Kenyan. When one steals what belongs to all of us, he or she does so as an individual to benefit himself or herself.

That receptionist at the NHIF who goes home by helicopter and has top of the range vehicles and many town houses has put whatever equation he used for himself and not for his community.

That fake “maize farmer” who benefited from activities at the NCPB at the expense of the actual farmers was doing it for himself as an individual.

[email protected]