As the new anti-corruption tsar, Bishop Eliud Webukhala, settles into his new assignment, the fact that we have over the years been pre-occupied with corruption cannot be denied.
The preoccupation goes back decades, to 1997 when the fight against it was codified into law with the enactment of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1997 and beyond.
First I do not believe that Kenyans are constitutionally, culturally and intrinsically corrupt. This begs the question why it is so widespread, commonplace and a big factor of our daily news menu.
My submission is that the fight against corruption is a victim of our preoccupation with legislation and legalese without a proper understanding of issues from a socio-economic and psychological perspective.
It all starts with our attitude to money and riches.
As the British colonialist settled down following the colonisation of Kenya, he created a society divided into classes of the haves and have-nots, the rich and the poor. The African maintained a Spartan existence in the villages denuded of his cultural dignity and economically deprived.
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In time his life became ordinary in its drudgery and poverty. Soon, education, employment and religion took away some of his children and when they returned they were clad in different apparel, spoke English and Kiswahili and appeared civilised and dignified, closer to the mzungu.
They met the dire situation of the “home” crowd living a communal life of poverty. They felt “better”, removed and different. The young colonised children saw and took note.
New ambitions were born that when the youngsters grew up they would like to be like so and so who went to Nairobi and came back looking polished and sophisticated, perhaps riding a bicycle or driving a car. This mindset did not end at independence.
Instead it came home more poignantly as the educated sons and daughters were employed by the Government and earned a salary. Some “worked” more than others in Government and otherwise and ended up as millionaires.
Some, among them were however so smart and ended up as just civil servants, taking home their pensions and nothing more. They were frowned upon.
Thus the focal point of all income became the Government and it spawned the growth of the moneyed elite. Capitalism presupposes that every person works for what he earns. Granted, stories abound of self-made, hard-working Kenyans who rose from penury to plenty.
However the overnight billionaires of today do not owe all they have to such an arduous journey. The question is; does the blatant rise in fortunes lead to those concerned being shunned and avoided? We have called corruption a cancer that is eating our society.
So why does the fight against corruption and its prevalence exist in the same space and time? My view is that it lies in hypocrisy. We spend a lot of time and energy pretending that we are fighting it. And we fail and fail again.
I hold the view the mistake that we made and have sustained was to treat corruption differently from other crimes and give it a distinct name and took it away from the Penal Code.
In our angst and the wisdom of Parliament we have created many more crimes and even space in prisons, so as to effect the fight and give ourselves our prize, a mkubwa in jail.
Yet all we have succeeded in doing is bring in even ordinary administrative failings into the bracket of corruption and clogged the anti-corruption courts with all kinds of charges, which rightfully end up at either the Judicial Review or the Constitutional and Human Rights divisions of the High Court.
The Constitution is superior so the suspect has to be heard on all grounds and the law applied without fear or favour.
Then Matiang’i happens. He exercised the powers of the minister without the preamble “by the Powers conferred upon me by such and such law’’.
Yet we now have arguably the cleanest exam results of recent times. It is all about doing what is right for the country and its people at any time, for any particular situation. It presupposes that anyone entrusted with public resources must hold them in trust for all of us.
As some of us occupy their days half dressed with sick and dying children, others flaunt their latest status symbols; gold watches, cars etc.
To me, given the current realities, Chapter 6 of the Constitution is merely aspirational, a wish that some day we shall grow such a population, a people wearing the badge of patriotism and respect for the good of all with honour and dignity.
