Original sins that haunt our efforts to end graft, greed

According to newly leaked information, more than one per cent of Kenya’s wealth is held in secret accounts in Switzerland. The staggering Sh64 billion, according to Swiss Leaks, belongs to politicians and business people. This is not necessarily breaking news. At the dawn of the Narc government, a firm by the name, Kroll associates, was tasked to follow up on Kenya’s wealth stashed in Zurich and other tax havens of the west. Now, I have no idea what became of such efforts.

The Swiss Leaks come even before the dust settles on revelations of massive graft and wastage at both levels of government. There has been hue and cry over wheelbarrows going for Sh109,000. If you go to a Kariobangi junkyard today, you can buy a salvage Nissan B12, or even a salvage Toyota AE90 at the price of one Bungoma wheelbarrow. Then you can have it panel-beaten back into fairly good shape and you join thousands of other Nairobians polluting the environment in creaky contraptions they have the cheek to call cars, but I digress.