Punish despicable MCAs for their embarrassing conduct

Members of Nairobi County Assembly struggle to reach Speaker Beatrice Elachi's office on September 10, 2018. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The EACC is not only mandated to fight corruption, but also to promote integrity.
  • We live in the age of renewed vigour in tackling the sickness that is duplicity and corruption.

Recently, members of the Nairobi County Assembly treated us to quite a show. Their storming the Speaker’s office to preclude her from gaining access were both comical and embarrassing.

But what is even more worrying is the MCAs dishonouring summonses by the anti-graft body concerning their unethical conduct in the House.

This despite the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) warning them that failure to appear before it would lead to penal consequences.

Isaac Asimov, an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, spoke about the nature of politics in his time.

A popular quote by him reads: “Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

INTEGRITY CENTRE

Looking at the conduct of the MCAs, this aptly describes what their politics means in essence. To not show up at Integrity Centre, Nairobi, and later blame it on their retreat in Mombasa is, basically, dumbing down the Constitution in their favour.

Of course, we have focused on the drama and missed the main thing — that the snub, which has made this a passing story, almost like a silent headline, is what will eventually be the undoing of our democracy.

You have to say this for the crooked demagogues and reactionary populists these MCAs are: They may have stirred the bitter soup of resentment against Speaker Beatrice Elachi, but their integrity bolts unscrewed to an even more loose state the minute they snubbed the EACC.

CONFUSION

Day by day, news bulletin by news bulletin, the MCAs spiral to new depths of strategic confusion and moral chaos. On the escalators in the building that is devolution, the direction is always down, down, down.

In that episode, their incessant flights of insult, conspiracy theory and raw rage were on show. But to plunge us into an age of unquestionable authority right at local level is a dark veneer we must all condemn.

We suffer blind power, hungry power clad in jackets of disrespect, especially at the county level. What we must not ignore is the fact that, if we cannot keep a foothold on power at the lowest of levels, we will lack the mere muscle to push for such respect at the top.

PROMOTE INTEGRITY

The EACC is not only mandated to fight corruption, but also to promote integrity. What these MCAs are so arrogantly throwing in our face is the fact that we are helpless in the face of power, however small and measly. The antidote, however, is that the commission should take charge and get them.

Forget Elachi’s impeachment or the court order; their ignoring the EACC is the small problem that’s too huge to ignore.

How are we to maintain sanity, decency and moral courage in fighting corruption and maintaining integrity when they behave in this manner? While Nairobi should be the beaming capital city county, it is, sadly, a comic show of people who clearly are choking in the taste of their own saliva.

Institutions work only when respected. For a long time, we have accused the EACC of lacking active fortitude and results … of being spineless. We have poked holes into its reports and efforts. We have questioned its intent and existence. This, however, is the point where we need to point a finger where it actually matters.

DRIVES RESPECT

It is one thing to imagine that something is not serious and another to ignore it entirely. These leaders are the fulcrum by which our society turns. But they fail to see the democracy which got them there is a product of the Constitution they are so quick to slay.

I can imagine being summoned by the police to record a statement. The mere fear of the consequences of not abiding by the summons will take me there. These leaders lack that fear that drives respect.

The EACC should make good use of the Constitution. These MCAs forget that they can lose their seats for these flimsy reasons.

We live in the age of renewed vigour in tackling the sickness that is duplicity and corruption — right from the Office of the DPP to the rallying call by the President.

We cannot sit and watch as MCAs push us back, as they disrespectfully ignore the demands of the Constitution.

Mr Mugwang'a is a communications consultant. [email protected] @mykeysoul