We are a nation of shoddy work, shady deals

A section of the stalled Itare Dam project in Kuresoi south, Nakuru County. [File, Standard]

I recently watched a clip where the Head of State was berating a building contractor for doing shoddy work during what appears to have been an impromptu site visit. The contractor was supposed to have finished building Kakamega stadium ages ago but as it is now, it’s nothing more than a shell.

The contractor looked rather cowed and was pleading for time to finish the work but the President could hear none of that. The contractor, said the President, is notorious for taking on many projects that he never finishes. To cap it all, he added that the government is aware that such contractors collude with people in government.

I had only one question: If we know this is what is happening, what are we doing about it? Are there no contracts that were signed with such contractors? Why don’t we ever see these people hauled in court if there’s proof they have colluded to steal from the public?

Why, such as in the case of the Kakamega stadium contractor, should such a person be given more work by the government, yet he allegedly appears to be well known for not completing contracts? Why not cancel the said contract and surcharge him and the government people who have closed their eyes to the corruption because their palms were greased?

Talk is cheap. We need action that will ensure that corruption that appears to permeate every pore of our being is completely exorcised.

I am sure there are no more than a couple of stadia that are ready more than a decade after they were mooted. We have white elephants all over the place, ghostly structures sticking their ugly heads where proper recreational facilities should be.

There’s no point having stadia that serve no purpose. For instance, some friends pointed out recently that Kirigiti Stadium in Kiambu is nothing more than an eyesore that serves no purpose. Since it was built, nothing seems to be taking place there. In fact, it looks like a garage where some contractor keeps his wares.

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The young players who used to play their games have nowhere to go because the stadium is closed to them. I have always asked myself whether building stadia all over the country – and creating a new entity to ensure that they are delivered – was not just another avenue for looting. In fact, I am convinced there was no intention whatsoever of building any decent stadium anywhere. The sole idea was to enrich characters who know nothing more than to come up with schemes to line their pockets.

But this state of affairs cuts across various sectors in the country. Look at the state of some newly constructed roads in the country and it begs the question: Are we as a country serious?

A road is built today and tomorrow potholes appear all over, yet we have engineers who passed the construction as fit for purpose.

These people roll in ill-gotten largesse and have no qualms showing off their latest toys yet we all know their salaries cannot sustain such lifestyles.

Many years back, I sat down with a leading local road contractor who was busy lamenting that they were being pushed out of business by Chinese contractors. Why allow such people to ‘invade’ our country and export jobs while the same could be handled by our people, he asked.

I fell short of asking him what his views were on a certain road he had been working on in central Kenya for eons. Would we rather create wealth for himself and his acolytes in government at the expense of the thousands of road users commuting on that road? To date, I regret not airing my annoyance at his playing the victim.

We don’t care whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice. In our case, if the Chinese are doing a good job building our roads, so be it. The local contractors who do sub-standard work should perhaps find another occupation.

The writer is a communications consultant