Debate on wealth of Kenya's oligarchs raises key issues

Last week, Nairobi lawyer Donald Kipkorir lambasted social media trolls and character assassins for questioning the source of investment titan Chris Kirubi’s business empire.

Mr Kipkorir, who is a friend, is a professed BFF [best friend forever] of Mr Kirubi.

Mr Kipkorir’s ire was stoked by suggestions that Mr Kirubi’s wealth originated from his work with KENATCO and Uchumi. In a denunciatory Facebook post, Mr Kipkorir vigorously defended Mr Kirubi and asserted that the investor had made his money the old-fashioned way — by the honest sweat of his brow. This, Mr Kipkorir opined, was the exemplar of meritorious capitalism. I don’t know how Mr Kirubi made his money, and can’t vouch for Mr Kipkorir’s defence of him.

There’s a subtext to Mr Kipkorir’s angst about the attacks on Mr Kirubi. Mr Kipkorir, a man of no puny means, has himself come for in drubbing on social media for what some deem ostentatious display of his good fortune. He’s posted social media pictures of himself lavishing friends with haute cuisine in exclusive restaurants.

The pictures suggest that good wine and food in fine eateries are a zenith of success. He’s shown off a quarter-million dollar automobile. He’s displayed images of his bon vivant persona in high Western capitals amid great luxury. We know from him that his digs — residences — are nothing to sneeze at. To put this in context, Mr Kipkorir says he walked to school barefoot.

Critics see Mr Kipkorir’s celebration of his rise from a village peasant boy to a commanding legal juggernaut as crass. I’ve heard people call it tasteless and a sign of congenital insecurity. But my interactions with him suggest he’s neither insecure, nor crass.

He appears genuinely pleased with his success and comfortable in his own skin. He articulates a coherent philosophy of life that is unapologetic about making massive amounts of money — and acquiring obscene wealth. There’s only one caveat — he believes you should acquire wealth and money honestly. You must play by the rules of capitalism and the free market. He openly says no one should be mocked or vilified for acquiring wealth cleanly.

Personally, I have trouble with the excesses of capitalism and the free market but concede that the system on which they rest — political democracy — is the worst form of government, except for all the others.

The last line is from British imperialist Winston Churchill. However, it’s what we have, and so we can’t tell people who successfully — and within the law — live by it to be ashamed of themselves. My task as a reformer is to continually seek ways to make the system fair so that even the littlest among us isn’t run over. But my role as a scholar is to think of ways to construct a post-liberal, post-capitalist society where inequity and gross exploitation aren’t possible. That’s why I reluctantly live with people who made lots of money within the rules, even if like billionaire Bill Gates, they are obscenely wealthy.

Wildly rich professionals

My point is that Mr Gates is an economic despot per se by virtue of his wealth. He’s the economic equivalent of a political despot like Idi Amin. The difference is that human civilisation has evolved beyond political despotism but not economic despotism. We valorise too much economic power in the hands of one person but reject the concentration of political power in one individual. It is these complex emotions and thoughts that provoke anxiety on social media when we discuss captains of industry like Mr Kirubi, or wildly rich professionals like Mr Kipkorir. Let me offer a short lesson on wealth in Kenya, and why we shouldn’t apply the usual rules of capitalism. We shouldn’t automatically give the benefit of the doubt to people who have amassed unimaginable wealth in what’s a very poor country.

Any study of most of Kenya’s wealthiest people and families easily reveals their connection to the State and proximity to power. This either suggests favouritism by the State, looting of public resources, or illegal contracting using the State. All of these are hallmarks of crony and primitive capitalism and accumulation. This point is unarguable. I am not saying that there aren’t people who have made their money cleanly. But such people are few and far between in Kenya.

Nor can I opine on Mr Kirubi — I just don’t have enough information. It is not a secret, however, that most wealthy Kenyans trace their money to the plunder of the State by the elites in the Kenyatta regime from 1964 to 1978. They suffered a setback under the Moi regime but bounced back under Kibaki I & II and are now making a killing under Kenyatta II. That’s why we should complexify morality and wealth, and Mr Kipkorir’s defence of Mr Kirubi.

The writer is SUNY Distinguished Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and Chair of KHRC. @makaumutua.