Integrity Centre, the EACC headquarters in Nairobi. File | Nation Media Group
Call them the sick men and women of Kenya’s politics – the swamp. But whatever name or moniker you bathe them with, there’s one singular fact that defines the whole lot – they are the parade of horribles. A basket of absolute undesirables. They personify, and exemplify, the worst of the worst in Kenya’s politics. They are the reason our country has lagged behind, and is bordering on an eyesore in the international community.
These men and women have been flagged by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) as unfit to hold any elective office in the republic, and have been earmarked for political extinction by the Redcard Campaign 2022, a leading ethics civil society consortium. But alas, virtually all have sneaked through – excused.
These politicians have no shame. They loot and steal from the public coffers in broad daylight. They flaunt their ill-gotten loot in the public’s face, and ask us, “mta-do?” (what will you do about it?). This is the textbook definition of impunity. Among them aren’t only notorious thieves, but they include alleged rapists, murderers, child molesters, wife-batterers, and all manner of human vermin.
They are a decrepit lot, the type that even their parents should regret ever burdening the world with. They are immoral, amoral, and even evil, if I may deploy a controversial term. For how else do you describe a monster who’s clothed in a human form, and walks on two legs?
The Mafiosi
One of these politicians is a former governor. Both his educational pedigree and political parentage are of dubious provenance. No one knows where, or how, he could’ve risen to the top, even among the Mafiosi. That’s Kenya for you. Gone are the days when the schoolteacher was the most respected person in the village. Today, the drug dealer, the predator of the public purse, and the plunderer of our children’s future, is the hero.
Our people are so desperate that the word “hustler”, used under the guise of an empty political slogan, can excite anyone’s noggin. We are a people who need to get a grip, or else. The aforementioned governor is Exhibit of our worst. An integrity state agency has taken him to court alleging the looting of a gargantuan sum of public monies.
Most people don’t have the brain to count the amount stolen. I had trouble imagining the sum. And – unlike the man facing these allegations – I went to known schools in the world. However, the impugned governor decided to “invest” the loot by buying choice properties in places where all and sundry would appreciate his machismo. You’d think most people “hide” the proceeds of their alleged theft in a dark corner, or park it in a remote bank. No, not this governor. He demonstrates his virility by conspicuous consumption.
Another senior politician who was once accused of carrying public money in huge sacks, insisted on being cleared to run for a top office. Without apology. How does such a person look the hapless citizen in the eye and say, “I want to lead you?” Isn’t that the proper spelling of the word “torture”? Our founding parents, and many weren’t saints either, must be turning in their graves.
They never imagined that we would sink this low. In many societies around the world today, such people would hang their heads in shame, or face public execution in others. In China, or Rwanda, their trunks and torsos would be separated from their heads. And I oppose the death penalty. I like the list of ineligible politicians produced by EACC. I like it very much. I am impressed by the list published by the Redcard Campaign.
But both lists suffer from a smidgeon of incredulity. How can UDA’s Presidential candidate William Ruto be missing from the lists? His running mate Mathira MP Rigathi Gachagua makes one of the lists. Why is he not in both? And why is Mr Ruto not on both lists yet he is dogged by allegations of corruption – and even worse? The brains behind both lists need to go back and restore his name in its rightful place. Otherwise, they are cowardly.
Heart and soul of our culture
Chapter Six of the 2010 Constitution is the most important anchor of Kenya’s fledgling democracy. Kenya’s democratic experiment will rise, or die, on that page of the Constitution. The chapter isn’t a suggestion, or a peripheral provision. It’s the heart and soul of our political culture. As it goes, so will our country.
The institutions commanded to root out criminality in our society mustn’t be complicit in this national cancer. EACC, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Directorate of criminal Investigation, the National Police Service, and the courts, must step up and give us our country back. The state needs to institute a real lifestyle audit. That’s the only tool that will free us from a national calamity.
Makau Mutua is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Margaret W. Wong Professor at Buffalo Law School, The State University of New York. Twitter: @makaumutua
Source: Sunday Nation tomorrow.
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