Zambia jailed two men last week for “attempting to use witchcraft to kill” President Hakainde Hichilema.
The two men, Leonard Phiri and Jasten Mabulesse Candunde were arrested with charms and live chameleons. While sentencing the men, the presiding magistrate said: “It is my considered view that the convicts were not only the enemy of the head of state, but also the enemies of Zambians.”
I was once involved in a case in which witchcraft was a bone of contention. An aspirant, who had lost a political seat, suggested that his rival had used witchcraft to win. He claimed that “votes were made to disappear using witchcraft”, and charms were found next to ballot boxes.
This is a common complaint in football circles, too. Football teams in parts of the African continent believe that their opponents place charms at the goalposts to prevent their strikers from scoring.
In President Hichilema’s case, evidently, the Zambian magistrate’s mind was clouded by the notion of witchcraft, causing him to abandon common sense and his legal training.
Back home, ghost workers have been reported in government ministries, such as the Ministry of Health, and also in county offices.
Aside from the ghost workers who were paid without ever being employed by the government, there were others who, despite being bona fide employees, would still get salaries without setting foot in the office. They leave their coats, scarves, and discarded high-heeled shoes to clock the hours for them. Ghost working is the way public servants work. Who is at fault here?
Is it the government, as an employer, for failing to check its workers’ performance, or is it the employees, for failing to take their public service duties seriously? Ghosts have mutated and multiplied, spreading to other areas of the Kenyan society. They have been reported in schools and hospitals, appearing as ghost pupils and ghost patients.
In its usual reactive way, the government has issued IDs to pupils in an attempt to deal with the problem. One cannot help but ask why the government did not see the problem until it was highlighted by the media. While we can discuss the ethics and morals of “ghost” workers, pupils and patients, but in my opinion I believe that the spread of the “ghost” thieving culture is exacerbated by systemic failures overseen by government agencies and departments responsible for auditing the conduct of their employees and monitoring how public funds are spent in schools and hospitals.
One may call “ghosts” found in various institutions as such, but their presence confirms how deeply entrenched corruption has become in Kenya that building “ghost” schools with “ghost” pupils to steal public funds “escapes” the anti-corruption agency, the police and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP). The Ministry of Health and its “ghost” patients have practically derailed universal health coverage and brought public hospitals on their knees. The heartbreak is the use of “ghost” pupils to steal from the education fund, hence, undermining the standards and progress of learning in Kenya.
Calling thieves of public funds “ghosts” is an attempt to treat the problem as if it were caused by witchcraft, when it has nothing to do with it. The “ghosts” in Kenya have ID numbers, Pay Bill and M-Pesa accounts, and, of course, bank accounts. The theft is not carried out by spirits, but by humans working in offices in the name of dubious accountants and account holders in various ministries, county offices, schools, and hospitals. This makes it easy to spot when public funds are being embezzled.
Unless the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and other anti-corruption agencies are fooled by ghost workers in chameleon skins, they should be held to account for failing to deal with the haemorrhaging of public funds via the “ghost thieves syndrome”.
Dropping corruption cases
With the ODPP dropping corruption cases involving “big fish” like hot coal, the problem of ghost thieves will continue. Failing to deal with big thieves will only embolden the smaller ones. The example being set for other Kenyans, whether they are public servants or healthcare officials, is to do what their seniors are doing — stealing with a brazen attitude.
Witchcraft has been blamed for underdevelopment in many African societies, but Kenya is not one of them. What is ailing development in the country is the plunder of public funds and resources without consequences. Underdevelopment is also being exacerbated by failures and corruption within anti-corruption agencies and those within the criminal justice system.
I know ODPP and EACC always claim not to have sufficient evidence to charge suspects, but surely if money is stolen and moved to unofficial accounts, that is more than sufficient evidence, not to mention their expected reliance on Unexplained Wealth Order?
Kenya is being eaten to its bones. No amount of witchcraft or spirits will raise it from the dead once that happens. You call them ghosts, but I call them corrupt officials and Kenyans defrauding taxpayers.
