NARC Drowning In Corruption Kenya Times 16 May 2004 Page: 6
The advent of grand corruption in the NARC governing coalition just confirms what we have known all along: That you can never trust any politician, and if you do, then you must set yourself for major disappointments. The NARC government is a classic example of the malaise bedeviling most African states. It is a sad state of affairs that the administration headed by Mwai Kibaki is throwing through the window, the immense goodwill invested in it by the populace and the benefactor donor community and agencies.
Amongst NARCs major covenants with the people of Kenya was the successful completion of the constitutional review process, zero-tolerance on corruption, provision of at least 150,000 housing units per year and the improvement of infrstructure consisting of roads, railways and the energy sector. Agriculture, the backbone of our economy was going to be given special attention and that farmers were all going to smile all the way to the bank, so we were promised.
The improvement of security, both physical and emotional was a major plank during the year 2002 NARCs general election campaigns, together with an annual 500,000 jobs created. The situation on the ground is totally different and rather than a transformation of our living standards, NARC is turning into our living nightmare and a confirmation of our deepest fears.
An audit must be carried out on the much-hyped free Primary Education and although the populist intentions were noble, its implementation leaves a lot to be desired with up to 80 pupils crammed in a single classroom. With this, the teacher-pupil ratio is so disproportionate for any effective learning to take place. It does not need a brain surgeon to conclude that our lopsided education system can only mass-produce half-baked zombies who cannot competently compete in the job market. Nobody is talking about the expansion of facilities at the primary schools level and neither is there any interest to expand the same at the secondary schools level to cope with the attendance increase at the lower levels.
While the notoriety of the ruling coalition on reneging on its promises is becoming legendary, perhaps what gauls the souls of the people of this country is the grand corruption evident together with runaway government profligacy. Hardly a week passes without a whistle being blown on new cases of corruption being unearthed so much that the Head of the Civil Service, Ambassador Francis Muthaura was forced to give an order gagging Civil Servant on the information leakages. One only wonders why a democratically elected government bent on fighting the scourge of corruption would want to keep away from the public eye certain information citing the much-maligned “State Security” cliche.
The continued retention of Joseph Magari in service as Treasury Permanent Secretary, before the news of his suspension was released on Friday, had flown on the face of any government pretence on fighting corruption. This is the one man who was allegedly instrumental in paying suspect billions to the” cowboy contractors” without veracity and express authority of the parent Ministry of Roads, Housing and Public Works.
This is the same man involved in the paralysis of the entire government procurement services last year when he ordered for the mass sacking of Procurement Officers in government only to rehire the same with an abominable majority coming from the now much-favored Mt. Kenya region.
This must be seen as a way of controlling the lucrative government procurement business by a select few coming from a particular ethnic region. A graphic picture of this may suffice: Out of 36 Procurement Officers, 33 come from the Mt. Kenya region while the expansive Rift Valley Province has one with the rest of the country left with the remaining two slots! If this is not tribalism by any other name, than what is? Before the ink even dries, we are yet again confronted with the corruption hydra in the passport scam involving a whopping Sh 2.7 billion over and above the tentative figure of Sh 800 million as envisaged by the Immigration Department.
It is Joseph Magari again who jumped the gun by hijacking the idea from the parent Ministry of Home Affairs thereby putting the Vice-President Moody Awori whose other docket is Home Affairs, into a quandary by being forced on the floor of Parliament to abet what was evidently corruption, by saying that the passport scam was above board. On being put to further scrutiny under the public microscope, the Kibaki government bandied the “National Security” by-line to try and cover up the obvious case of corruption. The issuance of passports is not even a national priority for the needy NARC Coalition government to spend Sh 2.7 billion on. If that money is pumped into major areas like our health system, many more antiretrovirals (ARVS) could be bought to arrest the debilitating HIV/Aids scourge. Minister Chris Murungaru in-charge of Internal Security with the connivance of the Treasury mandarins under Joseph Magari is said to have ordered a million handcuffs for both the Police and Prisons Services. A million is an intimidating figure, but a million handcuffs is proportionally monumental unless the government of the day is planning for a mass arrest of the poor people of the republic.
It is quite absurd and preposterous to imagine the need for so many handcuffs and the only mitigating factor seems to be a clear case of corruption through kickbacks amidst the rumored going rate for the NARC administration being thirty (30%) per cent. Of course it is in the public domain that some of the leading lights in the NARC ogre have turned into multi-million property owners in the short span of one year.
Murungarus stated Kshs. 50 billion in the next five years for the improvement of the Police Force could be seen as nothing but another goldenberg in the making to skim from state coffers, for insecurity is an economic issue and with that kind of money, thousands of jobs can be created thereby minimizing the temptation to go into crime. It is my contention that any government official who has been forced to write a statement of investigations by the Anti-corruption Unit has no business being retained in service. It is still vividly remembered that when expectations were high last year that Minister Karisa Maitha was on his way out due to some alleged corruption-related impropriety, political expediency proved otherwise yet by sacking Maitha, Kibaki would have sent a very strong signal on corruption. The NARC government is fast losing credibility and the moral ground on many issues and especially now on corruption. This negates on the many commissions of inquiry started by the Kibaki administration and the government must be told in no uncertain terms that if it is bent on creating its own Goldenbergs, then even the current money-guzzling “Goldenberg Inquiry” must be stopped forthwith for there is no need of throwing good money after bad.
The new Registrar of the High Court one Njagi was adversely mentioned in the Ringera report on corruption in the Judiciary yet found his way back on promotion through very dubious machinations bordering on tribalism and corruption. It is no wonder then that the entire judicial system is heavily populated by people with roots in the Mt Kenya region. The Minister of Constitutional Affairs, his assistant, the Chief Justice, the Solicitor -General and now the Registrar of the High Court all come from a particular geographical vicinity .
There cannot be any coincidence that there is runaway corruption in government since most of the people involved know that they also control major prosecution organs of the state. Nobody still knows what happened to the then headline catching Euro-Bank saga and it is becoming increasingly doubtful whether anyone will be successfully prosecuted.
It is much easier to deal with the new cases of corruption now rather than later since evidence would not have been tampered with. Mwai Kibaki should live up to his billing as a Statesman and stamp his authority against corruption in his backyard. The political affliction will be great in the short run and yet the benefits would be much far greater in the long run. It is within his constituency to act now rather than later and enter into the annals of posterity for having been a leader who stood to do right during his time.