There is definitely an ill-wind blowing across the Kenyan landscape.
It stinks and is akin to that drip...drip...drip from a leaky roof that irritates by its mere monotony.
That editorial writers must keep harking back to the subject of runaway graft is testament to the resilience of graft champions, the supremacy of the lords of impunity or legislation that long passed its sell-by-date.
Sometimes, it always appears that the country leaps back a dozen steps for everyone it takes forward. How is it that taxpayers have to foot billions of shillings to revive State corporations that were looted dry by Kenyan managers in years past?
Is it not curious that nation-states considered “age-mates” have seen their economies grow by leaps and bounds and are net exporters of goods, services and Foreign Direct Investment?
That standards of living in these states cannot be compared to Kenya’s and their economies are powered by manufacturing, services and information technology, even as Kenya still relies on safari tourism and primary product exports.
Better education, however, has led to an increasingly literate and sophisticated workforce, lower maternal and child deaths, higher survival rates, the growth of democratic institutions and a desire to attain the standards of living of her peers.
The highway to this dream has been extensively laid out under the national economic Master Plan dubbed Vision 2030. Much has been achieved, much, much more remains work-in-progress, but the country is inexorably making headway.
Most of it is anchored on reforming major institutions of governance to adopt best practice, draft legislation and implementation of a widely-accepted Constitution, complete revamping of infrastructural works, proactive support to various economic sub-sectors, improvement of national health care, increasing literacy, and hopefully, adopting a better work ethic.
Very grand indeed. So, where lies the problem?
Simple. Everywhere!
There can never be just a pimple departmental procurement of goods, services or consultancy without the word kickback popping up. Not even maize that was meant to feed hungry wananchi during one of the country’s leanest periods was spared.
Even acquisition of a stretch of land to bury the dead fell under the brush of corruption and has seen the case drag on for ages.
A mere headcount of Kenyan households, it now turns out, may have proved a money-spinner for some of the census top officials. Leave alone that some of the census results were punctuated with disbelief and were cancelled despite the billions sunk into the exercise.
the underwriters
Another award-winning proposal was the international tendering for a forensic laboratory to expedite criminal investigations. It tuned out to be yet another cash cow for a cabal of well connected individuals and offshore companies. The taxpayer picked up that tab too.
No sooner had a succession of window dressing “consultations” had been kick-started than President Kibaki’s star project of universal and free education somehow wandered into the ubiquitous web of creative accounting officers.
They almost sucked it dry, right under the very noses of the development partners whose citizens were underwriting the programme until someone blew the whistle. Righteous indignation and a probe or two later and the missing money was reportedly refunded and the bookkeepers rued their mis-chance.
Funding for survivors of the Global Fund-backed HIV and Aids/TB/Malaria found itself suspended after briefcase ‘medi-trepreneurs’ realised the money would be better utilised in their bank accounts rather than in anti-retrovirals and life-saving medicines on hospital shelves.
The globally-acclaimed Constituency Development Fund has been turned by some MPs into a slush fund to reward relatives and cronies.
How sad that virtually every project or programme geared towards improving public welfare and furthering the milestones envisaged by the UN’s Millennium Development Goals and ultimately, Vision 2030, has been ‘raided’?
This leads us to pose the questions: Are Kenyan managers inherently dishonest? Should corruption be legalised since it appears to have become a way of life? Tough.
