Wait a minute; solution to our corruption lies with the corrupt

You set a thief to catch a thief. Hence, I would like to propose to the corrupt to join the campaign of eradicating corruption; they are better placed than the rest of us to do that.

You see, every time I ask to go into a government office to borrow something as tiny as a paper clip, somebody would readily suggest to me that they know someone in that office who could help.

But I am only going for a paper clip; why do I need to know someone who would know someone who knows where I can borrow one paper clip?

We all know that is how we roll in Kenya. There is a corruption gene in all of us. We have never paused to ask why it is even necessary to have to go to an office to borrow a paper clip when we should buy ours.

We have been so conditioned to bleeding the system that we rarely stop to question the implication our action would have on others. The drip-drip effect of water is all that is needed for a ship to sink.

Some of us have perfected chopping a little here and there, thinking that the minutiae action will have little impact on the country. We have you, and millions more Kenyans, chopping a little here and there and — Bingo! — before we know it, we end up with hospitals with no medication, schools with no books, poor roads and a fire department with no water.

EMPTY

As Shakespeare said in King Lear, "Which is the justice, which is the thief?" In Kenya, it is hard to distinguish between the 'honest' and the corrupt. We are either complicit or cowardly impervious to corruption.

Michael Jackson was once asked about the use of plastic surgery in Hollywood and he said: "If everyone who had plastic surgery in Hollywood was asked to leave, it would be left empty."

If we were to apply the same analogy in Kenya on corrupt people, we would be left with a near-empty country, I bet.

Corruption is something in Kenya that we all partake in through design or default. When a bribe is offered, there is always the giver and the recipient. Rarely do we hear the giver being punished for the same crime that is a causal-effect of two people's action. Roadside bribery, for instance, takes a police officer and a motorist. In the eyes of the law, both are guilty.

DENIED OPPORTUNITIES

Corrupt individuals have the answer to ending corruption. However, I believe they can only eradicate it the day they take a pause to understand the implication of their actions.

When you fail a State school but take your children to private institutions, you must remember you have created social problems for yourself. Those whom you denied opportunities will one day find you by jumping over your high wall and rob you to survive.

The policeman, then, cannot afford to protect you because he has no fuel in his car since you embezzled the fuel budget.

God forbid if the robbers left you with serious injuries and the nearest hospital is the State hospital whose resources you depleted. There will be nothing the doctors could use to stem your blood flow or resuscitate you with.

Pray the house doesn’t catch fire in the melee because no fire truck will come to your rescue as you didn’t bother to ensure there was enough water to fill their tanks when you worked at the Water Department.

BLOOD MONEY

Should the worst happen, I am afraid, there won’t be a casket large enough to take all that you looted (just in case we kindly decide to send you to your grave with your blood money). The beach villa can’t be flat-packed, so I am not sure how we can help with that but, perhaps, move in the homeless you created?

You will go to hell, as that is where the corrupt belong. Yet, again, who knows, you may meet an angel up there from Kenya whom you can influence and help you return to earth as a real pig for corruption Take-Two.

We can plot and plan on how to eradicate corruption but the solution can only be found at individual level. The temptation of easy money will always be there, but would it be worth anything if it all came back to haunt you or your family?

For every action, there is a reaction. At policy level, the natural reaction to corruption is having legislation to deal with the menace.

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

However, legislation will achieve very little if corruption is left to permeate in the society because we failed to take individual responsibility.

Before you purchase your four-wheel-drive car to cope with the potholed roads you built, think! You could still be a victim of carjacking from the young man you denied an education opportunity because he could not cross the only river to his school since you failed to build a bridge over it. Instead, you spent the money on a fuel guzzler.

If you are corrupt, think; corruption has consequences for you too.

 Ms Guyo is a legal researcher in Kenya and the United Kingdom. [email protected]