Grand Corruption Season in Kenya

There is a new season in the country. A season of stealing public funds and every public servant mandated to safeguard public funds meant for developments is striving to be part of this season. Many have even become celebrities after successfully managing to be part of the stealing season. Main stream media has given them free airtime with their party photographs dominating the front pages of our daily papers.

Initially, people used to steal in thousands, then they graduated to stealing in hundreds of thousands and now, it is like they have seen that stealing in hundreds of thousands does not make them happy anymore so they now steal in millions with some who want to be champions in the field moving closer to a billion.

There is massive looting of public funds everywhere. There is massive looting in every nook and cranny of the government both at the National as well as at the County Government levels. In fact, the President of the Republic of Kenya once publicly admitted that there was corruption in state house, the seat of power.

Independent state organs like the police, office of the Director of Public Prosecution, the Attorney General’s office as well as the office of the Chief Justice are either compromised or unwilling to act as a result of some powerful unseen forces controlling them. Chief Justice Willy Mutunga has been trying to shade off the corrupt brigadiers who have been patrolling the corridors of justice in the country but all has always ended at that, trying.

Aden Duale, the leader of the majority in parliament recently said that graft is entrenched in all the sectors meant to enhance the economy of the country and said that the rising cases of poverty, terrorism as well as crime are attributed to this vice. He said that “Mega corruption is going on with impunity in parliament, Judiciary and the Executive. Bodies tasked with the fight against the graft like the police and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, private sector and county governments are also tainted,” and even suggested that corruption be declared a national disaster.

All mega projects in the country have been tainted by massive corruption with the Auditor General revealing that billions of shillings cannot be accounted for but no step has been taken, life has always gone on as usual, no checks applied and no balances made, when one asks, the only answer one gets is ‘Kenya is okay.’

Name any project that is not tainted with corruption, Standard Gauge Railway project (SGR) that was embroiled in tender rankles with allegations of billions of shillings being looted or planned to be looted, the National Youth Service (NYS) where close to a billions shillings are unaccounted for with calls of those mandated to take care of the funds to resign falling on deaf ears, massive graft at the ferry where there are allegations of billions of money have been misused leaving poor Kenyans to be contented with old ferries, the Youth Fund where it has been reported being a field of money laundering with more than fifty billions being unaccounted for, and now the close to 170 billion shillings from the Eurobond which those concerned cannot tell how they were spend.

The situation is even worse in the counties. Governors are busy competing on who is stealing what and how much. Some have set up face book accounts using millions, some like in Kakamega used millions to renovate a restaurant that does not exist, some have used millions to build madhouses, who can compete county officials in coming up with lucrative projects that need more thieves to take part?

This prompted Twitter user @SokoAnalyst to pose the question, ‘Has the President tolerated corruption in his government?” out of 200 votes for the question, 87 percent voted YES and only 13 percent went for the NO. In fact, the majority believe that the President has not only managed to tolerate corruption but also adopted it. Let us face the facts: Is the President aware that billions have been lost at the NYS? From the noise that has been made, he must be aware. What step has he taken? Has the Cabinet Secretary in charge ‘stepped aside’ as it is the tradition? No. has any Cabinet Secretary who stepped aside been fired? Not yet. What of the Eurobond saga? What did he say? Kenya is okay.

Meanwhile the season is still on and continues to attract more participants.