Go beyond lifestyle audit in war against corruption

President Uhuru Kenyatta with his deputy William Ruto in Mombasa County. [Standard]

Eating rice can be dangerous! Very dangerous! It can present a far deadlier effect than the obvious choking hazards. An effect lethal enough to bring down a government. Shaun Raviv, a freelance journalist based in Atlanta, tells of how the government of former Malawi president Joyce Banda unravelled from such a seemingly innocuous act.

Raviv’s account starts with Anaphiri, a housekeeper to a junior civil servant. Anaphiri steals some money from her employer and retreats to the anonymity of her rural hometown. She shares some of the loot with her son Sam, a known village layabout. Sam soon engages in profligate spending. He buys a mattress, a bucket and kitchen utensils, luxuries few in the poverty-stricken village can afford.