Jubilee cannot blame Raila for its failure

Duplicity, Kenya’s main political seasoning, is at play.

The self-imposed vanguard role in defending and articulating the Jubilee agenda, pitching for the indefensible and white-washing blots on the Government’s wall, score off Deputy President William Ruto.

Last week, Ruto was at the Coast where he purportedly ordered the arrest of Kilifi County officials involved in a slightly over one billion shillings heist. Days before, he had defended, rather than order the arrest of, close allies explicitly named by the prime suspect in the Sh1billion NYS saga.

Early this month, Ruto took to witticism, wondering whether President Uhuru Kenyatta’s sister “was not a woman”.

The President’s sister had become the focus of attention for her alleged role in the Afya house scam where Sh5.2 billion is said to have been lost. Ruto probably chooses to overlook the finer nuances on ‘conflict of interest’, lending credence to the belief in some quarters he is not bothered by corruption.

Suffice it to say; even company-sponsored raffles carry a caveat; 'relatives and family of employees not allowed to participate’.

Thus, lucrative Government tenders have their caveats to ensure a level playing field.

Yet despite these safeguards, unscrupulous individuals still make nonsense of the much-touted Government efforts to economically empower millions of educated, jobless youths, disadvantaged groups and women through the award of a certain percentage of Government tenders.

The wisdom and cognitive abilities of some of our political luminaries as they attempt to dazzle the public with their brilliance are enough to get one alarmed. When you add the President’s increasingly undiplomatic language as he berates the opposition, despair sets in.

But it is easy to see through the feeble Executive attempts to sweep scandals under the carpet.

So far, clandestine deals gone awry revolve around procurement. They raise questions on the efficacy of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Integrated Financial Management System, which is supposed to leave an incontrovertible trail.

The system was touted as foolproof and so transparent that, in American slang, picking out malpractices would be as easy as a breeze. Despite that assurance, the system is susceptible to breaches.

Or maybe it was designed to create opportunities for highly-placed thieves to help themselves occasionally, and the need not to worry about ordinary riff-raff getting wind of their machinations got the schemers careless.

For a year now, Kenyan taxpayers have been run through loops and walked through mazes by suspects in the theft at NYS, which saw over Sh1 billion vamoose. Without even the simplest of answers coming from the Government, it’s easy to read a conspiracy.

The bad blood between Government and the Opposition favours the former. In fact, Jubilee does everything possible to escalate the rift for its benefit. An indoctrinated section of the public that views everything as a contest between Jubilee and Cord, Uhuru and Raila or a tribal contest between their communities has been conditioned to believe nothing positive can come from the Opposition.

Thus, Opposition supporters believe the Government is also up to some mischief, creating a conundrum.

Even as the Opposition raises pertinent issues on the Eurobond, the Northern Water Collector tunnel, NYS, Afya House and the Itare water dam in the Mau forest, Jubilee's attack dogs only have to claim Raila wants to sneak into power through the back door and the Opposition would be on trial by half the country. When the Deputy President joins the refrain with his condescending narrative of ‘wale wengine’, ‘jamaa wa vitendawili and waganga’, objectivity flies out the window.

A lid was adroitly put on the Northern Water collector tunnels, but the Itare dam project surfaced. We must be wary of leaders who play with the very essence of our existence.

There is evidence water levels are receding alarmingly as populations grow exponentially. In Mathira, Nyeri County for instance, communities nearly fought recently over a water dam.

Half the country, during the best of seasons, experiences severe water scarcity. The tragedy is that this potentially explosive matter has not attracted enough Government attention.

There are no efforts beyond the now empty rhetoric to sink boreholes where they are needed.

There are no Government attempts; no strategies to harvest rain water despite prodding. Countrywide irrigation schemes that could ensure food sufficiency are mainly still proposals on paper.

Compared with what water wars may amount to, Al Shabaab attacks are a picnic; a very minor inconvenience. Government must come out of its lethargic stupor and do what is expected of it; blaming the Opposition for its inability is simplistic.