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.

Sam takes to drinking juice with every meal instead of plain water. He substitutes the local staple Nsima with rice, a luxury consumed once a year. Soon enough, village chatter gets to the authorities about Sam’s new-found wealth.

In a police interrogation, he reveals his mother as the source. Anaphiri in turn admits to stealing the money. The trail eventually ends up at the house of her former employer where hundreds of thousands of dollars are recovered. Later, it is discovered that this lowly civil servant is part of an elaborate scam involving senior ministers of government and eventually implicates President Joyce Banda.

Deeply divided

Shaun Raviv’s story has a ring of déjà vu to it. Tales and trails of corruption have existed from Kenya’s independence. Unfortunately, time has enhanced rather diminished these episodes. For a nation that was described as the most optimistic on earth in 2003, Kenyans have risen high on the pessimism scale. To many, the recent promise of a courageous fight against corruption is as remote as the sands of Chalbi desert. Which is why the President’s recent speech on the soon to begin lifestyle audit has been met with skepticism. It is seen as little more than a desultory conversation.

For starters, the corruption fight is seen as a flash-bang gimmick intended to obfuscate the real issues facing the country. Top of the list is the excessive borrowing by the Government that threatens to hurtle us to insolvency.

The infrastructural projects responsible for these borrowings have yet to yield meaningful returns. Second, Kenyans remain a deeply divided lot unable to surmount the fissures of negative ethnicity. Third, despite denials from politicians, it is all about the elections of 2022. It is about realignments, positionings and elimination of adversaries through the complex web of political machinations.

Kenya is far more advanced than Malawi and the purchase of rice or mundane household items is unlikely to elicit any excitement. However, the similarities in the two countries’ fight against corruption remain. There are those engaged in conspicuous consumption here in Kenya. These are the junior civil servants who own huge houses in the leafy suburbs.

Struggling business

Others include the nouveau riche suppliers with their faux hairdos and fuel guzzlers. Whilst a lifestyle audit will net a few of these, the real architects of corruption will probably get away by flashing their “get out of jail free card.”

It is inconceivable that a few lowly clerks and struggling business people could put up a series of elaborate scams to defraud the government. It is more likely that the plots are hatched by powerful but shadowy figures high up in the totem pole of power. It is even possible that exposing these figures could cause aspects of the Government to unravel.

For the corruption fight to attract the cheer of Kenyans, only clear, concrete and verifiable actions will sell. Not rhetoric. But before then, avenues which lend themselves to corruption must be sealed. Some of these are the amorphous disbursements by the Exchequer untied to specific projects.

This is what led to the National Youth Service scams. Others include government-to-government funded projects that are not open to competitive bidding. The country does not always get the best value for its money. Still, there are state institutions that are shielded by the “national security” mantra and which operate in an atmosphere of opacity despite allocations to the tune of billions.

As the lifestyle audit begins, Kenyans hope it will net more than just a few clerks and “slay queens.” Those are merely fall-guys lower down in the corruption food-chain. The people we hope to see arrested are the ones who buy new choppers and own villas in Switzerland.

These are the kind who own numbered accounts with billions. Certainly not the types who carry millions in gunny-bags and transact in cash from darkened basements.

Mr Khafafa is Vice Chairman, Kenya-Turkey Business Council