Let’s rid the farm of good for nothing foxes

Now that we are banning contraband goods, there are some ‘contraband’ people and organisations that should be consigned to the dustbins of society. That’s because the fight against corruption will fail if we keep the same people in certain offices. The man, it seems, makes the office in this country.

My statement is simple to prove. Before Noordin Haji, the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was known for issuing nolle prosequi orders, nothing more. It was simply the office rich people visited to ensure that their criminal cases were stopped before they started. 

The same can be said of the office of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations that was unknown to most Kenyans until George Kinoti took over, and now we know that investigations leading to arrests can happen. Strangely, the man has not used the infamous cliche “leaving no stone unturned”, which for once seems to be what he is doing.

The English say, “Cometh the hour, cometh the man,” but in my own estimation, there are some men and women whose hours came and they tumbled like houses made of tinder.

The first that come to mind are Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, the three commissioners who resigned and his CEO, Ezra Chiloba.

This cabal has the hallmarks of incompetence. This is true for a number of reasons: First, we have three who apparently don’t know how to quit a job and have no shame returning months after they left in a huff. That they are fighting to come back shows their disdain for the collective Kenyan people.

No better

Their chairman is no better. Who fails to rein in a team of people who earn six-figure salaries? In the history of electoral commissions, no other chairperson has failed at it so badly that there is no place one can look at in IEBC without finding failure - be it in procurement, HR, how they run elections and their grasp of the law. We should do ourselves a favour by declaring these people ‘societal contraband’ and be rid of them.

The other place we need to direct our ire is the National Cohesion and Integration Commission. It has failed to do in more than a decade, what Uhuru and Raila did in a few minutes - unite the country.

The commission and its similarly named counterpart in Parliament have been ineffectual. They neither stop hate nor support love.

I have waited for them to give a statement on the Building Bridges team or to offer their help but alas, their silence is deafening.

Unfortunately, they still earn high salaries and are driven around in Government vehicles, complete with bodyguards yet the only danger they face is that of muscular atrophy attributable to lack of movement.

All they do is vet songs for hate speech instead of inventing songs that promote peace. By now they should be trying to classify sings like ‘Daima Mimi Mkenya’ as national treasures.

Parliament is another sleepy organisation.

I am told that whereas in Uganda, youthful MP Bobi Wine is making the nation desire and hope for change, here we keep electing MPs who can neither legislate nor play an oversight role.

Proving useless

The tyranny of numbers is proving useless because MPs act more like people hungry for money than thinkers who are curating the future of our nation.

There are many problems to solve but both houses are silent.

There is the issues of application of Chapter 6 of the Constitution on integrity, the two-thirds gender rule, the change of the law on lifestyle audits, the need to address devolution and to explain why Vihiga, with a large population, receives a lot less money than Mandera or Moyale.

The two houses are sitting on their hands when devolution under our governors seems to only work under two professors, Kivutha Kibwana and Anyang’ Nyong’o.

Speaking of which, you should visit Kisumu city to see how clean it is and you will understand that surely, ‘vindu vichenjanga’.

Instead of being the sounding board for governors, Senate sits in ivory towers calling governors to the Senate for unfruitful shouting matches.

Devolved funds

What does Senate do when devolved funds are delayed? The answer is nothing. What does Senate do when governors build Sh200 million mansions instead of houses for 200 or more families? The answer again is nothing.

We must, as a nation, quickly come to terms with the reality that our animal farm has the pigs which we hate, but it also has the little foxes that ruin the vineyard.

These foxes are useless animals that produce nothing and prey on our taxes. They have appetites and no output. They are black holes into which money flows and nothings comes out.

We need to rid ourselves of them, then maybe not so many of us chickens will end up as dinner for the foxes. Let us send them home, they have ruined our country enough.

Mr Bichachi is a communication donsultant; [email protected]