Chapter six of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 is an addendum that needs to be expunged. All the hype about integrity, responsibility, oath of office, conduct of officers, restrictions and financial probity is hogwash.
Its obsoleteness is manifest in the frequency and intensity with which it is being abused.
The chapter is part of the foundation on which the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) was established yet, it too, serves no purpose.
EACC is not just a toothless bulldog; it is blind and has no sense of smell either.
The turnover rate of chairmen at the Anti-Corruption agency, dating back to when it was alternately known as the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority (KACA) and Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) has been quite impressive.
John Harun Mwau, Judge Aaron Ringera, Patrick Lumumba, Mumo Matemu and Peter Kinisu, all of whom served as chairmen must have encountered untamable, indestructible ogres out there that determine the tempo of Kenya’s erratic pulse.
Unable to cope, they all resigned.
Inasmuch as EACC is an unnecessary drain on the exchequer, so is the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC). Charged partly with ensuring decorum and integrity are an integral part of leadership, it has failed Kenyans.
There are politicians and disgraced Cabinet secretaries who wouldn’t be roaming the country free, working the psyche of hapless villagers urging them to elect them to high office where they proceed to run roughshod over them if NCIC wasn’t so comatose.
Amazingly, desperate, destitute and weather-beaten individuals who circumstances force to use national identification cards as collateral to temporarily booze away their miseries go up in indignant tribalistic fervour when lied to by politicians.
Integrity is anathema to most of our leaders. In its place, they have perfected what Kenyans call ‘grabiosis’, a malady that defines who they are.
From pilfering public funds and re-channeling them to society through harambees in prosperity churches, from grabbing public land and kicking out peasants from their little pieces of land, most leaders still have the audacity to act like they are God’s gift to the perpetually suffering Kenyans.
In all this, neither NCIC nor EACC have championed the common man’s cause; the interests of a country inexorably being taken not just to the dogs, but the cleaners as well.
Good wishes for Eliud Wabukala are a horse that won’t ride. He is as good as putty in the hands of cartels; very highly placed individuals who must be chortling with glee at his appointment.
However committed, Wabukala is set to fail, not as much out of incompetence, as from not being able to bite the hand that feeds him.
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Rip-offs that involve billions of shillings stolen from supposedly foolproof systems are orchestrated from the very top.
No simple clerk would have effected the heists at the National Youth Service and Afya House. No ordinary person can affect disability to siphon millions of shillings from Government coffers.
I am yet to come across ordinary civil servants who own multiple palatial homes costing upward of Sh200 million each when their salaries are in the public domain.
Well-connected individuals steal billions and gun for high office where more billions would be at their disposal.
This excerpt from President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech encapsulates our situation, “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.
Washington (read Nairobi) flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.
Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land”.
The desperation across Kenya is heart-wrenching.
And rather than send food aid to starving nomadic families, the Government is sending vehicles with voter registration cards. Nothing describes heartlessness and myopia better than this misadventure.
As political campaigns snowball, NYS and Afya House scams have gone mute.
If Jubilee retains power in August, you can bet your last cent that will be the end of the story. We will never know the stories behind our instant and philanthropic billionaires.
To unearth all the truths about financial misappropriations; Eurobond, assorted loans and massive looting that have ensured Kenya remains in the bottom ranks of prosperity, yet top the ignominy charts, the cover behind which thieves find refuge must be removed.
The cover must be peeled back to expose the extent of gangrene eating away at Kenya.
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