There are Kenyans who genuinely believed that after Narc took over power in January 2003,
the new government would bring corruption to a permanent end. Others believed that thieves who had stolen from the tax payer during the Moi dictatorship like Professor George Saitoti, Kamlesh Pattni, Daniel arap Moi and his sons, Nicholas Biwott and others would be brought to face justice and possibly chained behind bars for ever if found guilty. What happened?
Saitoti was made the Education Minister by Kibaki and now, he is the Internal Security Minister in the Grand Coalition after he rigged himself back to Parliament by stealing votes at his Kajiado constituency.
Moi has been roaming the streets a free man after he stole more than US$ 3 billion from the toiling Kenyan tax payer. While voters did their part by keeping three corrupt sons of Moi out of Parliament, Kibaki didn’t. Instead of investigating Moi, he allowed the former dictator to campaign for him during the last elections which Kibaki rigged to return to power.
Kamlesh Pattni is a free man after millions were spent in a Commission of Inquiry to investigate him for stealing billions of Kenyan shillings belonging to the tax payer. The Report of the Goldenberg commission is still gathering dust on the shelves, not to mention that at one point, Kenyans woke up in the morning to read about corruption scandals involving members of the Commission itself.
Nicholas Biwott, who was Moi’s right hand man for decades and who was once described as “untouchable” is still “untouchable” today despite a pile of evidence about his corrupt dealings when he pulled the strings as a member of Moi’s kitchen cabinet. Biwott was not just corrupt. He still remains a suspect in the Ouko murder case but nothing has happened to him.
The Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission set up by Kibaki has not prosecuted a single thief although its boss, Aron Ringera, is earning a monthly salary of Ksh 2 million.
Chris Murungaru resigned from his Cabinet position in Kibaki’s government because he was tainted with corruption beyond “acceptable levels” but nothing happened to him. The same case applies to David Mwiraria, former Finance Minister in Kibaki’s government who resigned in the heat of the Anglo-leasing type corruption scandals that awoke Kenyans from their stupor and convinced the nation that the monster of corruption was far from being tamed. Kiraitu Murungi resined together with his pal Mwiraria but today, he is a Cabinet Minister appointed by Kibaki.
Moody Awori, former Vice president in Kibaki’s government, was heavily tainted with corruption especially the Anglo-leasing scandal but he served his term until he was thrown out by voters so what will happen to Kimunya?
Scandal after scandal followed Kibaki´s government but no one ever went to prison – the Helicopter scandal, the Naval ship scandal, the 18 Anglo-leasing type scandals that were exposed by Githongo, the Kirinyaga Construction company scandal, the Ksh 2.4 billion Cowboy contractor scandal together with numerous mini and mega scandals that were well documented by concerned groups, government agencies, Commissions of Inquiries, Parliamentary Committees, Media reports and International organizations.
A common denominator in all the major corruption scandals that came to light during the first five years of the Kibaki dictatorship is that no action was taken and victims are either serving in today’s Grand coalition government or walking free so what was going to stop Kimunya from trying his hand on corruption since he had the opportunity as Finance minister?
FREE-MARKET SYSTEMS ARE PRONE TO CORRUPTION
In the latest Grand Regency scandal, only the most naïve Kenyan believes that Kimunya acted alone. There is no way he could have pulled such a deal single handedly and one does not need to go far to find out who else might have been involved.
President Mwai Kibaki travelled to Libya to discuss the deal with the Libyan government and what does this tell the curious observer? The Hotel was under the custody of the Central Bank of Kenya so the Boss of the Bank must have been involved otherwise how did it change hands? The Intelligence boss has been named as an accomplice while a law firm connected to the Minister of Foreign Affairs has been cited as having been part of the team which sealed the deal so Kimunya is not alone. The agenda was to raise funds for PNU election campaign. Despite these details, nothing dramatic has happened to those connected why?
Corruption is built within the system of capitalism that exists in Kenya and until this point is clearly understood, illusions will continue to exist among the masses of the Kenyan people that it is possible for pro-market capitalist ruling classes to one day set up a government that will be able to fight corruption. The Grand Regency scandal is a manifestation of a general rot within the system which also allows MPs to legally steal millions of Kenyan shillings in salaries when millions of Kenyans cannot put food on the table.
Under the system, politics is business, not a preoccupation aimed at transforming society to the better and politicians view their positions as opportunities of building personal business empires and acquiring colossal amounts of wealth at the expense of the tax payer. Corruption comes about because the process of wealth acquisition through public office does not include following the accepted rules of getting rich within the framework of capitalism – buying and selling at a profit.
A Cabinet Minister like Kimunya has multiple opportunities of stealing from the public so he does not need to go through the process of “doing business” to get super rich. What he needs is a chain of state bureaucrats who can agree to a corrupt deal with kick backs flying at each and every stage of the corrupt deal thus Kimunya needed the cooperation of the Central Bank boss because Grand Regency was under his control. A go ahead from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was key because the deal involved another foreign power. Most importantly, such a deal could not have proceeded without the knowledge of the President who travelled to Libya to discuss it. Some buddies of the President have been named in the media as having tied the deal together.
What the Grand Coalition has done is that it has made it much more difficult for certain corruption scandals to go through because of political competition within the same government and this is progressive.
According to the theory of corruption under capitalism, ODM (a pro-market Party) would find itself facing numerous corruption scandals if it took over all the major instruments of state power regardless of who is the president. There is no single country in the world running on a free market system of government that is known to be free from corruption in high places and Kenya is no exception.
STEPS TOWARDS FIGHTING CORRUPTION
Kimunya has resigned but nothing will happen to him because even after resignation, he has a duty to protect his colleagues still in government. These colleagues (including the President) are the people who are in charge of instruments of State power. Even if Kibaki is involved in the scandal, he will not resign simply because Kimunya has resigned.
Those involved will not push Kimunya too far because of the risk of him exposing others who are still in hiding. These are the rules within the system and those who think that the culprits will be brought to book are unconscious about certain realities within the system. What happened to Mwiraria who resigned Kimunya style or Murungaru Chris?
If the government manages to reposes Grand Regency, that will be the greatest achievement. Commissions of Enquiries could be set up but Kenyans have seen them come and go without action, sometimes without even the Reports of these Commissions being made public. Reports of both the Sungu commission on the murder of Dr. Ouko that was set up by Kibaki and the Ndungu Land Commission have not yet been officially released to the Kenyan public.
An effective fight against corruption has to begin with a system that could reduce monthly theft of public funds through MPs salaries, life imprisonment of thieves like Kimunya and company caught red handed in the act and confiscation of property found to have been acquired through corruption. Resignations and Commission reports are time-buying events which alone will never fight corruption in Kenya.
Okoth Osewe
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