Fury of impunity fighting back

Okech Kendo

A crisis does not have to be declared; it should be self-evident.

There are crises in the Grand Coalition Government, but the one ODM proclaimed Monday is among many, which are obvious to right thinking citizens.

There is a crisis of leadership when those safeguarding the public interest do not want to take responsibility for their actions and inactions.

There is a crisis of confidence when leaders lie to fool the masses. Someone is cheating on the war against corruption. Now we know they can cheat some people some of the time but they cannot cheat all the people all the time.

This tango of impunity (of William Ruto and Samson Ongeri embracing each other during a funeral in Kisii and a section of the Executive cheering) is good and bad. Bad because it frustrates the public interest. Good because it marks the beginning of the end of the era of impunity.

Even as the appointing authority continues to disappoint, there is another legitimate force to trigger progressive action. It is a struggle to sever the deathly kiss of corruption and impunity. These vices have frustrated justice with the same fury as they impoverish the masses.

There is a crisis of integrity when a 74-year-old minister is more worried about his political career than the future of the poor agemates of his great grand children. There is a crisis when one public officer is assigned more vehicles than all police stations in the City of Nairobi. There is a crisis when a minister is assigned three cars when a police station has nothing.

There is also a moral crisis when a minister confesses, while chest thumping, in vernacular what he has denied before a duly constituted House watchdog committee.

There is priority crisis when the appointing authority disappoints on issues on which it has promised to act. There can be no middle ground in the fight against corruption and impunity.There is memory crisis when an appointing authority gets away with mendacity, even as citizens play the victims of impunity.

Confidence crisis

There is also a crisis of trust when ministers whose dockets are under investigations continue in offices, even as the appointing authority frustrates good intentions.There is a crisis of confidence when the appointing authority sharpens the fangs of impunity, even as the groundswell of public rage grows ever more furious.

There are crises everywhere you look. For gainsaying one crisis, ODM is being mean. It should be generous enough to disturb the status quo, defined by impunity, arrogance and doublespeak.

The appointing authority told wananchi on December 30, 2002: "Corruption will now cease to be a way of life in Kenya and I call upon all those members of my Government and public officers accustomed to corrupt practice to know and clearly understand that there will be no sacred cows under my Government."

Such is the rhetoric of this era of impunity; such is Executive impudence holding you, the masses, in perpetual captivity. Now let us balance the Grand Coalition blame account: Prime Minister Raila Odinga sacked two technocrats; Kibaki dismissed eight five hours later, including the two Raila had fired. But the race for credit stopped when Raila fingered sacred cows. Corruption is forgotten as politics of who has power (power to protect sacred cows) takes precedent.

Raila petitioned Kibaki twice in public to suspend the Minister for Education. But the President’s allies said the PM does not have the authority to ask the President to sack ministers, even as they doubt his competence to fight corruption.

To prove he can fight corruption Raila suspended two minsiters, but Kibaki torpedoed the sacking two hours later, citing breach of procedure.Then the Attorney General turns up to say the PM has no powers to suspend ministers, but he has constitutional mandate to co-ordinate and supervise functions of Govenment ministries. For failed co-ordination and supervision PNU activists want the PM to resign, thus taking political responsibility for soaring official corruption. It’s double-speak to befuddle wananchi.

Until the circumstances of the war against corruption changed last week, this Government was degenerating into a grand Coalition for blame sharing.

Rotten apples

What with the rising crescendo of it wasn’t me; it is you; it’s not only me; you, too, have rotten apples.

Justice Minister was the latest, trying to balance the blame account without realising he precides over the ministry in charge of prosecutions.

Don’t even imagine the Judicary and the Attorney General’s office are independent. If the AG’s were, Wako would not have been smoked out to defend the status quo, with skewed constitutional logic.

Mutula Kilonzo is the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs that houses the administration of justice. Like his predecessor Martha Karua, Kilonzo is all talk and no-do. Just like the AG.

Now, there is no need to ask why you, the people, must drive out lying politicians, who are beholden to vested interests. The only interest that should matter is the public interest – your interest.

The writer is The Standard’s Managing editor Quality and Production.

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