Institutionalised corruption for the benefit of very few individuals close to power is clearly back in full swing.
There is no doubt that the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) is in dire need of refurbishment and expansion. Investment in the infrastructure should also come with a change in management so that Kenya’s premier gateway is infused with the visionary leadership that will ensure world-class service.
The country is also in urgent need of a working universal health system. President William Ruto’s promise is due to roll out next month and should be a game-changer if it works as advertised. But please, let us not call it “RutoCare”.
One can also appreciate the need for massive investment in the energy sector. The blackouts we regularly suffer these days are a national shame. No one can argue against the need for heavy investment in power generation, transmission and distribution. We will never ramp up manufacturing and industrialisation when cursed with unreliable and inconsistent electricity supply.
There are many other areas in need of serious investment, including other airports beyond JKIA, as well as roads, railways, public transport, housing, education, water, sewage systems ... the list is endless.
Keeping promises
The Ruto government seems to be keeping to its promises by moving ahead with recently unveiled projects on expansion and modernisation of the JKIA, rollout out of the Social Health Insurance Fund and investment in the energy sector. These three, alone, could be Ruto legacy projects if they work out. However, the devil is in the details, for close scrutiny reveals that it could be a negative, rather than positive, legacy.
What the projects reveal is a government moving with reckless abandon, sidestepping established public procurement mechanisms so that opaque, secretive deals can be struck by dubious operators with tentacles stretching right into State House.
We are seeing a web of shadowy individuals and entities linked to each other through front companies established in Kenya and abroad getting mega contracts through deals shrouded in secrecy.
Institutionalised corruption for the benefit of very few individuals close to power is clearly back in full swing.
Now, we can concede that there may be room under our procurement laws for public-private partnerships, privately initiated proposals, specially permitted procurement procedures and all the other exceptions being thrown around to justify shady dealings. However, the exceptions were put in place for good reason, not so that they can be abused for private gain and public loss.
Early on, this government proclaimed that on delivery, it is more interested in results rather than processes. That might have seemed rational given stifling bureaucracy and rows that too often derail and delay public procurement.
But now we can see with the airport, health and energy deals that the intention was to bypass transparency and accountability mechanisms, allowing wheeler-dealers who boast close personal and business networks within the corridors of power to loot with impunity.
The three deals which have been the centre of attention in recent days reveal a lot about the interlinked networks, which all point to a common node.
Ministries such as Transport and Energy have long been citadels of corruption, and it is obvious even now that appointments to top offices in those dockets are always tied to ones capacity to deliver, not on development, but on illicit proceeds for the benefit of those in power.
Then we have other ministries, where dumb, clueless Cabinet secretaries are just figureheads with no idea what is happening on their own desks as all big money deals are being designed by a tiny cabal with close proximity to power.
When this government says that it is fighting corruption, we know that it is lying because that would amount to fighting itself.
Kenya is a crime scene. It is one of those notorious countries where it is said that the government is the Mafia.
And the danger of a Mafia State is that the perpetrators do not stop at looting the country dry, but all also employ the criminal justice system as part of their enforcement networks.
Don Vito Corleone of Mario Puzo’s famous Godfather trilogy had his Caporegime, the network of enforcers deployed to assault, threaten and kill rival gangs or other impediments to his criminal activities.
We are seeing here the police “force”, the National Intelligence Service and other security organs increasingly deployed as regime enforcers. We are being led down a dark, dangerous path of abductions, torture, killings, secret jails and other activities that herald a return to the police State.
Will we sit idly by? Are we so meek and dumb that we cannot collectively say a very loud No! to the rape, looting and plunder of our public resources?
[email protected]; @MachariaGaitho.
