Seizure of corruption proceeds is good news

If there is something that works to relieve the stress that Kenyans have to endure to manage their lives, it is the comedy provided by some of their elected leaders. Had it not been that the subjects that these leaders joke about are actual real life issues that have greatly caused the stress and hardships we face, our country would have been one of the greatest comic theatres in the world. Picture this.

RESPONSIBILITY

A man on whose shoulders the responsibility of managing resources to make the lives of over five million of residents livable is invited to a church service organized to offer thanks for a year of hard toiling and choses to use the occasion to warn fellow leaders against talking about theft of public resources. He is so mad about the fellow leaders’ habit of shouting corruption that he froths at the mouth and almost becomes hysterical. But in this entire tirade he makes very interesting revelations. He tells the country that he himself is aware of two of the said leaders’ thieving habits. He says he knows one of targeted leaders seated at the same church has stolen some public parcels of land in the same city the man was elected to govern. The governor of the country’s capital city is telling a former elected Member of Parliament of one of the constituencies, and now nominated to Parliament, that he knows, and has known for a long time, that the MP has not only stolen in the past but he is holding onto the stolen property belonging to city residents. The governor does not seem to have a problem with the fact that the MP has stolen though, his only problem is that the legislator is talking about other thieves.

Never mind that one of the main reasons the governor was elected to office was to protect public property! Never mind that the man has all the legal, physical and moral tools to repossess the stolen property and bring it back to the public. No. His position is that it is not right for thieves to talk about stealing and other thieves and it irritates him when they do!

A few days later, another governor, in a neighbouring county, choses to stage his own comic act. He organizes video/TV cameras and sets off on a soliloquy telling the country how he knows how, how much and when another leader has been stealing public land and buildings. Interestingly, it is the same MP his Nairobi counterpart had accused. Also interestingly, some of the property that the alleged culprit stole was in a constituency the governor was representing in Parliament at the time the said robbery was executed. The governor did not raise any concern then. In fact he admits he benefited from the looting as he knowingly “bought some kashamba (land parcel) from one of the grabbers”. A sitting governor is telling the country that he knows he is handling stolen public property as his own and he has no problem with that!

Interesting times will live in.

FALEN OUT

There is a common denominator on the solo casts of these two comedians though, the person they are accusing. He is a former ally, a member of the same political party that got them all in positions they hold now. The difference however, the only logical explanation why they are telling on him now and not last year or the time the stealing was being executed, is that they seem to have fallen out over which of the two Jubilee factions- Kieleweke and Tanga Tanga- they identify with. The two governors are adherents of Tanga Tanga while the MP is a leading light in Kieleweke. The MP has since denied the accusations and challenged his accusers to present evidence of wrong doing on his part to investigative agencies. Laughable! Obviously, none is clean as far as stealing public property is concerned.

In an ideal society, these three musketeers would be in remand prisons “helping police with investigations into robbery, corruption and looting of public property”. In Kenya, we, the victims of the crime, are laughing at their theatrics!

COMEDY

But it is not all gloom as far as the fight against corruption and looting of public resources is concerned. Over the weekend, we learned from media reports that the Asset Recovery Agency has since recovered billions of shillings in cash and property suspected to have obtained from graft. We also learnt that the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) is pursuing more billions of shillings from corruption suspects, their sexual partners, friends and relatives. To paraphrase EACC Chief Executive Officer Twalib Mbarak, it is not enough to just arrest, arraign and jail thieves of public property. It is important that they and their relations are denied the undeserved privilege of enjoying the proceeds of the crime. More importantly, everything must be done to ensure restitution. The stolen property must be recovered and brought back to its rightful owners.

Then, and only then, will we get entertained by the comedy of the thieves!

Michael Cherambos comments on topical issues. [email protected]