Fighting the cancer of corruption is an individual responsibility

By Ken Obura

NAIROBI, KENYA: It is not the absence of effective laws that is the cause of pervasive corruption in this country as people have alleged. We have the Ethics and Anti-Corruption and the Judiciary to punish the culprits. It is the tardy and lukewarm response of bureaucrats handling grievances that is responsible for corruption persisting in every sphere of this country.

Our dishonest political elite and its comrades in the bureaucracy act in concert and ensure that no probe against their shady activities ever ends in exposure of their true colours. Transparency, a word uttered by our mentors, is mere rhetoric that is never meant to be practiced.

While the past Presidents declared openly their determination to fight corruption, they failed to provide practical support to institutions and people entrusted with the anti-corruption crusade.

Corruption is rife and Kenya’s position on the global corruption index has not changed positively because the government laxity to stem corruption.

The globalisation of this vice- corruption- in Africa has outpaced that of virtue with urgent need to balance the situation. This can become possible only if the educational standards go up and those who are engaged in politics show appreciable erudition. There are grandiose designs on paper to fight corruption, which every government functionary openly refers to, but don’t comply with

Corruption thrives in government departments mainly due to lack of accountability. Officials, from top-to-bottom, share the booty, with low-paid officials serving as conduits. To annihilate this vice, government services ought to be made more transparent. For instance, to ensure accountability, there should be a time-frame for the issue of licenses, passport and permits. It should be indicated in the application forms, besides being prominently displayed on office notice boards. Awareness of rights and entitlements is a pre-requisite for the people to prefer complaints against erring officials.

The malady is increasing at an alarming rate and has eaten into the country’s vitals. Indeed, the citizenry has a significant role to play in tackling graft. Sadly, society perpetrates corruption by assuming the role of the giver, who is to blame as much as the receiver of the bribe. Corruption is an assault on human rights and a threat to democracy and media should expose corruption boldly, even at the highest level as they exposed the Ministry of Education saga. There should be teaching in schools and places of worship reinforcing that bribe-giving and bribe-taking are both condemnable.

By its very nature, corruption doesn’t mean only bribe-taking, as most people wrongly conclude. Any act that goes contrary to the norm qualifies as corruption. The Christian Gospel gives us a good example in the form of “adultery,” where Jesus says that adultery is committed even if the individual merely looks at the other’s erogenous zone and has mental pictures that arouse sexual pleasure. It is something psychological—conceived in the mind’s eye as an imaginary sense of consummation In effect, the mental picture of sexual appetite alone is enough evidence of adultery (corruption) even if the act itself is not physically carried out in the end.

Like cancer, corruption too is an inert, onerous and painful experience. The unearthing of corruption in the Mulolongo weighbridge scum is a concrete expression of the rampant corruption that latently exists in public life.

In this country, corruption has become so rampant that it is no longer considered a crime or sin. Right from politicians to class-four pupil, it is practiced as if it is one’s birthright. The employees do it because they have the backing of “big men” and politicians indulge in corruption by spending the government money lavishly on populist measures. In the U.S., for instance, the law doesn’t only bark; it bites very deep. It doesn’t matter who is involved. That’s why the US citizens fear the law. In our case, it is the reverse because the very people entrusted with enforcing the law are the first to flout it with impunity. Nobody seems prepared to instill “the fear of the law” to citizens.

We have reached a stage in the handling of national affairs to know that we cannot make any progress if we do not allow the laws of the land to function effectively.

However, there is hope that war against corruption can still be won by some committed and patriotic citizens in anticipation of large-scale support from the general public. The question is: who will bell the cat? Or else, we have to bear the brunt of corruption bravely. Human and infallible, though we are, there is hope that if we prepare to do the right thing to stem corruption and purge ourselves of greed and filth.

President Kenyatta needs to know that his government cannot escape blame if it does nothing concrete to stem corruption. The fact is that if he presents himself as incorruptible, he will not make any difference. It is the institutions of state that must be strengthened to make corruption unattractive, not one or two individuals projecting themselves as such. When our institutions are strong enough to stem corruption, the individuals will not be tempted to indulge in it.

As President Obama has already cautioned Africa, the time has come for us to break away from the mentality of “strongmen” to that of “strong institutions” of state! That is how countries brave the storm and move forward. Kenya must move forward too. I challenge President Uhuru to make the difference in the fight against corruption.

Hon Ken Obura is an ODM Member of Parliament for Kisumu Central Constituency.