Uhuru abandoning graft war, or Ruto not joining, is suicidal

What you need to know:

  • What many feared, that the fight will become politicised and a contest between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, is coming to pass.

  • The camp that is trying to curry favour with Mr Ruto argues that he is the loser in all this.

  • But Ruto is better off owning, joining, taking over and advancing the anti-corruption campaign. Not only will it strengthen his electability, it will also disarm his perceived enemies.

Fighting corruption sure is hard. In a cynical country where everyone is presumed to be on the take and folks — including highly educated and intelligent, able-bodied people — are consumed by the pursuit of ill-gotten wealth, it is even harder.

Kenyans are not gentlemen thieves who, even when they act immorally and illegally, have limits. They are given to frenzies and binges. We have overdosed on graft — a decentralised and irresponsible looting of public coffers on an unprecedented scale in our dirty history.

SYSTEMIC FAILURE

Actually, I am not sure whether this is corruption at all, from the stuff that has crossed my desk. This looks like systemic failure of the State. The system is no longer able to enforce desired behaviour and, without that, the State is unable to function.

However you look at it, the Kenyan State is unable to procure goods and services. And it is unable to discourage deviance through punishment and surveillance. Folks have eaten the country into near collapse. And rather than hang their heads in shame, pouring ash upon themselves and covering their bodies in sack cloth, they have dug in to fight for their ‘right’ to plunder and claim protection from the law.

RECKLESS CONDUCT

If this looting is driven by greed, it is also oiled by tribalism and a generous degree of stupidity. Greed and ethnic entanglements cloud the capacity to intelligently assess the impact of behaviour. If you feed semi-processed sugar to the population, what is the impact? What is the long-term effect of importing and distributing counterfeits on your enterprise and the ability of the economy to support you and your family and business?

What type of madman quickly prepares a supplementary budget to pay corruption? Such blatant and reckless conduct is, at the end of the day, suicidal.

TURN OFF TAPS

Kenya suffers from the fact that folks don’t analyse issues deeply and no programmes to effect large-scale behaviour changes are consistently designed and implemented. If they can’t figure out that some things are bad, somebody probably ought to teach them.

Today’s corruption is different from that of the Moi State. Then, it was a bribe. You were allowed to be corrupt as a reward for loyalty; so, it was centralised and controlled. Not that that was any less harmful or pervasive. But there was a central authority which, if it was minded, could turn off the taps.

JOIN MELEE

My sense is that today, corruption is chaotic and out of control with no mad genius overseeing it. As a matter of fact, even those deep in government participating in it have joined the melee and are scrambling with their proteges to snatch the marshmallows from the flames.

Traditionally in Kenya, corruption is the preserve of civil service oligarchs — serving or retired to business — and tyrants both in formal government or serving as informal, but not any less influential, tribal rulers. The natives have upset the order of the corrupt State. They have jumped into the pool fully dressed. And everybody is now engaged in an unseemly scramble for taxpayers’ money.

In Kenyan culture, class is not a matter of blood or breeding but Sh100 million of stolen cash stuffed in an account. Those who only yesterday were digging jiggers from their toes are peering out of their bedroom windows on the upper reaches of the Burj Khalifa. Tragedy is, that does not take society anywhere. Blowing public money on fake taste is not productive investment.

PROTECT ALLIES

Kenya is slowly but certainly losing the race of progress in the region to nations that are better organised. Fighting corruption is no longer a luxury, favour or act of generosity; it is an existential necessity. Unfortunately, what many feared, that the fight will become politicised and a contest between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, is coming to pass.

The camp that is trying to curry favour with Mr Ruto argues that he is the loser in all this. What is left unsaid is that President Kenyatta would be the victim if the war on corruption fails — he would be lame-ducked, lose relevance, possibly even power, before the end of the second year of his final term. Staying the course is not just a legacy matter; it is also a question of survival in power.

The fight is entering a decisive phase: The swollen ranks of corruption are massed, armed and pumped up. As usual, corruption is well resourced (the money doesn’t come from anyone’s pocket anyway), clever and massively motivated. If Mr Kenyatta loses his nerve and tries to protect allies and favourites, then the war will be lost.

ENEMIES

If Mr Kenyatta and his allies get to a point where they believe the stability of government depends on ‘going easy’ on graft, the opportunity to do good will be forever lost and, maybe, so will his grip on power.

For the umpteenth time, I believe those who claim that Mr Ruto is the victim of the campaign against corruption are folks who have been in the rain of life and are seeking the warmth and shelter of patronage. Mr Ruto is better off owning, joining, taking over and advancing the anti-corruption campaign. Not only will it strengthen his electability, it will also disarm his perceived enemies.

We live in hard, but interesting times, thank God.