NYS heist reminds us revolution the solution to grand corruption

Kenya is ripe for a revolution. That assertion stands truer today than it did when uttered by Chinese Premier Chou en Lai not long after the attainment of independence.

That is the only conclusion one can draw as the latest instalment of the recurring theft at the National Youth Service sends a powerful reminder that grand corruption is deeply embedded in the DNA of government.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, Mr William Ruto, can issue all the public threats and warnings against corruption, but those they appoint to high office will still loot the public purse with utter impunity.

They steal in full knowledge that all those warnings are only meant for public consumption, otherwise grand larceny is the expected standard of behaviour.

Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto are proud heirs of systems where one rode to great wealth and high public office on the back of theft.

Waste and plunder of public wealth became entrenched under the Kenyatta I and Moi kleptocracies and has continued unabated since.

CORRUPTION

It would be expecting too much of the students and direct beneficiaries of industrial-scale theft to be the ones to put a decisive stop to corruption.

Stealing is addictive. Once enjoyment of illicit wealth is normalised and lent a veneer of respectability, no power on earth — short of a complete revolution — will reverse the rot.

The best one can expect for now is that a few sacrificial lambs will be offered for the NYS heist.

However, the real kingpins, the movers and shakers in the upper echelons of government, will remain untouchable.

We will see Director of Criminal Investigations George Kinoti, Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji and Public Service Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia huffing and puffing in some great shows but it will be all smoke and mirrors.

INCOMPETENT INVESTIGATION

Eventually, it will be only some mid-level suspects who will be charged and, most likely, after lengthy show trials, be acquitted because of deliberately incompetent investigation and prosecutions.

Then we will again see that familiar circus of the President, the DPP and other officials hitting out at the Judiciary for allegedly failing to help in the war against corruption — while the culprit lies within in police detectives and State lawyers who wilfully do shoddy jobs in service of their political masters.

And after that Kenyans will wail and moan and gnash their teeth in frustration that corruption wins again.

But those are the same citizens who will rally around thieves and scoundrels.

You can be sure that if a prominent figure close to the office of the President or Deputy President or any other powerful political office, including that of opposition chief Raila Odinga, is arrested for corruption, there will be no shortage of hirelings to take the “our people are being finished” refrain to the political podium and the blogosphere.

And as night follows day, come elections, we will dutifully troop to polling stations in record numbers to vote ‘our’ thief to State House, Governor’s mansion, Parliament and County Assembly.

VOTE FOR THIEVES

As long as we vote for thieves, we have no right to be surprised and outraged when they steal from us.

It is time we accepted that we will never win the fight against corruption unless we have a virtual revolution.

First, there is a need to have a regime in place that sends the very firm message that corruption does not pay.

That is why I have always proposed public hangings or firing squads for all complicit in the stealing of public funds.

But that will not happen — unless we first stop voting for thieves and confer leadership only on the morally upright, who seek to serve rather than to enrich themselves.

POVERTY

So, first, we need a revolution in our own minds, and the realisation that the thieves we elect to office steal from us and not from some amorphous entity called ‘the State’.

Yes, the government does not have a cent of its own; it’s only a custodian of your money.

When we don’t have decent public health and education systems, when the majority still suffers disease, illiteracy and poverty, when we are still being swept away by floods or suffering drought and famine, when greater swathes of the country are inaccessible and under-developed, it is because “our” person is stealing our money.

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