‘Our lives
begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter’, is one of
Martin Luther King, Juniour’s popular quotes that has refused to escape my mind
lately. When the opposition leader Raila Odinga rebuked the jubilee government
for over stealing, the thought of current day ‘thieves’ was just unbearable. I
had to put pen to paper and hope that somehow, stealing would be mitigated from
its current status as a national crisis.
Are we
literally falling off into some sort of leagues? It might not be an act in
isolation, many more might have escaped our knowledge, but when a grown up man
cheats in a marathon, we need prayers now more than ever (certainly not the hypocritical
prayers by politicians).
The Kenya
National Examinations Council is at the very least expected to maintain a tight
examination system with zero leakages and 100% credibility. That should be one
of the reasons for printing exam papers overseas. It’s about time we printed
our exams here at home, we just need to rid bad elements off the system! Exams
are synonymous to rites of passage; they test our comprehension of specific
knowledge necessary for our next assignment. When a medical student cheats in an
examination, the next assignment is absolutely and inevitably fatal. There’s no
such sickening ordeal than having a staff member, holder of a ‘first class
honour’ in your establishment, who is clueless and full of gibberish with
nothing to show for the honours!
80% of Kenya
is either arid or semi-arid. The desert is slowly catching up. We must do all
we must to reclaim the once arable lands and increase the forest cover. What
happened to the Nyayo philosophy, ‘Cut one plant two’? Trees are part of our
beautiful scenery. Some other trees are also seeds of gold. Global warming and
climate change should be a concern for every single human being on planet earth.
Before we
harshly and selectively judge the former Mayor of Nairobi, do we take a moment
to appreciate the history of electoral injustices? For how long shall we accept
rigging of elections and related malpractices? I believe we are mature enough
to conduct credible elections that are free from tribal hatred and
insecurities. We are capable of handling elections that are not compromised at
the polling center by uncouth individuals who would rather hang themselves than
have a person from tribe ‘x’ as president.
Aren’t we
just a profligate country? We pay our members of parliament to the tune of a
million Kenya shillings in basic pay and other allowances and guess what? We
have to appease them with ‘a few’ more hundreds of thousands every month in
‘sitting allowances’ for them to do the very job they are paid to do! Isn’t
this the point we should blame the sorcerers for our problems? It is still
fresh in my mind how we rubbished off Ababu Namwamba and called him all sort of
names! The gods will never forgive us. Just what if Ababu’s was an honest
proposal? We scuttle the same solutions for our problems and imagine some
miracles will happen somehow. The Salaries and Remuneration Commission has
totally failed Kenyans. As if awarding hefty allowances to the political class
is not enough, it continues to review the same allowances astronomically high just
to save their tenure of office at the expense of millions of Kenyans. For how
long shall we steal from the poor mama
mboga? Does it trouble you to know that a night-out allowance for a member
of a county assembly is equivalent to the monthly basic pay for the lowest paid
public servant? We are dreadfully creating an unjust economy that shall
inevitably breed strife between the proletariat and the bourgeois.
‘The Pride
of Africa’ should not have made losses in the last two years. If there’s
anything new the skies have been lately accustomed to is MCAs of county ‘A’
travelling to Jerusalem in search for the tomb of Jesus Christ, County ‘B’ is
on route to Denmark to ‘study’ their tree nurseries and County ‘C’ is flying to
Singapore to benchmark on irrigation. There are endless of these trips to the
extent that some countries had to put in place stringent measures to address
the lack of order by disorganized entourages that are never adequately prepared.
That the ‘Pride of Africa’ has not made a killing out of this leaves us with
one conclusion, maybe it doesn’t fly to those destinations. What the taxpayer
needs to know though is that billions of Kenyan Shillings have been spent on
these trips. The question we must all ask, what is the reciprocal effect of
these trips here in Kenya? If there’s none to show, what amount of
infrastructure would have these vast resources built? We certainly would have
tarmacked most of our roads by now. Our hospitals would be equipped with state
of the art equipment. Instead, these billions have been lavishly spent with
abandon in useless overseas escapades!
It is human
nature, though wicked, to foolishly and lazily maximize on the resources placed
at our disposal. Few, if any, will use the resources optimally or even save for
another day. Stealing in government begins immediately at the planning stage.
Inflation as an excuse is used to bloat government budgets to ‘provide for
unforeseen circumstances’. During actual implementation, crafty government
individuals set out to spend the allocations maximally regardless of the state
of the economy. As bad as Donald Trump may be, particularly on his illegal
immigrant policy specifically targeting immigrants of Kenyan origin including
our own cousin Obama (POTUS), when he speaks about government officials
stealing and investing overseas, preach, Mr. Trump, preach!
From
Bungoma’s non-carcinogenic wheelbarrows worth a few hundred thousands of Kenyan
shillings to Nyamira’s multi-million magic gate that I believe heals by touch,
to ‘elnino’ bars of soap worth Kshs.37, 000/- each, the government has invented
the greatest thieves of all time. The ‘elnino’ bar of soap is not foreign to
the common mwananchi and thus
receives much media attention, but the billions of other evil government deals
remain obscured and even when they are revealed like the NYS scandal, nothing
really happens!
Citizenship
comes with responsibilities and obligations. Governments exist for the common
good. Governance is our collective effort. The smooth operation and
implementation of government programmes is purely dependent on the cooperation
of its citizens in payment of taxes and other charges. To evade tax is
irresponsibility. To enjoy government services that you contribute nothing to
is even immoral. On the other hand, the government must account for every
shilling of revenues. Unfortunately, corrupt government individuals embezzle up
to 50% or more of these revenues leaving little for development and government
services.
As I write
this article, I am fully aware of how much my unborn grandchildren are indebted
to the government of the day. The rich can never have enough to fill their
always ‘empty’ abysmal stomachs. When the local revenues are depleted, they are
quick to borrow both locally and from foreign lenders in the name of funding
government programmes. Poor Kenyans have no idea they are lending a greedy
government that is only interested in securing a future for the fortunate few.
The bulk of us and our future generations shall bear the pain of repaying these
loans. When a government is determined to borrow to the limit, we are at the
precipice of an economic catastrophe! Our future generations have committed no
crime to be subjected to an unbearable public debt!
The number
of land grabbers now referred to as private developers is shooting rocket high,
faster than the Ministry of Lands can process their title
deeds. In a few years’ time, land shall be the most prized possession, in fact,
it already is. The continued subdivision of land is in itself detrimental and
counter-productive. We are clearing more arable land for shelter. We build houses
that have no appetite for the vast vertical space in our atmosphere. Perhaps,
it is high time we began buying the ‘land in space’ now before it is too late!
It is
evening and you are feeling totally worn out as you head home after a day of
excruciating work. You hand over a five hundred shillings note to the matatu tout expecting back a balance of
four hundred shillings. But you are not in a hurry and neither is the tout.
Before you even think of demanding your balance you fall into a temporary nap
as the matatu hits the highway. By the
time you alight you have no idea you are leaving your balance behind. The tout
on the other hand has been praying hard that you forget and miraculously his
prayers are answered. A hundred metres off the drop-off point it hits you that
you are less four hundred shillings. You are sure the matatu must have left by now but you insist on going back to check.
The best way out is to imagine your four hundred shillings balance was an act
of charity. If you are lucky to get the same tout then you learn a thing about
plausible deniability.
The internet
and mobile service platform is full of con gurus. Mostly targeted are
unsuspecting and uninformed elderly men and women who ‘accidentally’ end up
subscribing to a list of fishy useless services without knowledge of their cost
implications. The old man cannot fathom why every time he recharges twenty
shillings of airtime it gets sucked up before he makes a single call. In fact,
the old man wakes up every morning indebted to these cons.
A flock that
is easily deceived by rogue pastors and self-proclaimed ‘false’ prophets is
most certainly suffering gullibility and deficiency of social intelligence.
Such flock is the actual representation of Karl Marx’s definition of religion
as ‘the sigh of the oppressed creature’. Why would you spend your hard earned
fortune on a ‘Miracle Pastor’ who then converts it into a Range Rover while
your feet suffer the brunt of reality when you do not have bus fare? This is
much more the reason why we should put emphasis on educating the masses to
liberate their minds from cultic prisons. Identical to these rogue pastors are
the witch doctors whose placards you will find nailed to the roadside trees
claiming to be originating from distant lands, ‘Mganga kutoka Pemba’. They apparently heal every problem you can imagine
of including poverty. Recently they have discovered a way of making your
landlord to forget demanding rent! However, they are unable to heal their own
problems ‘Mganga hajigangui’. Yet
‘clients’ stream to their sacred shrines hoping to have value for their money!
Drug barons
have robbed us of future leaders, the future human capital that every country
needs to survive. Drug abuse has rendered our youths zombies. We lose many more
through organized crime by the order of these barons. The effort by the
government to rehabilitate addicts is welcome. We must step up the fight
against drug abuse. Only a healthy population can trigger production and
prosperity.
Terrorist organizations
that promote selfish interests are busy radicalizing our youths and converting future
doctors, engineers, teachers to suicide bombers, robbing from the society of
valuable young minds. The more they recruit the more innocent lives are lost in
terror related activities. We are left with no option than to spend colossal
revenues in self-defense instead of advancing our education, boosting our food
security and investing in healthcare.
Unfortunately,
Kenya is bourgeoning with a ‘good for nothing’ middle class that sees no evil,
hears no evil and speaks no evil. A middle that has refused to hold its
government into account, an emasculated middle class that stands by and watches
as the nation goes down the drain. A middle class that is not aware of how sick
the nation is. A middle class confused and lost in the Malls oblivious of the
destruction all around them. A middle class that is best at creating hash tags
and closely following #TrendingTopics.
A middle class that will one day wake up and realize it is too late!
It is by
collective responsibility that we can all 'Make Kenya Great Again'!
By Onduko
Gilbert - A scholar in Public Administration.