Yes, we will say it again: To deal with poverty, we must confront corruption

Integrity Centre, the headquarters of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• I think the Communist party is clever, disciplined, and ruthless enough to control nearly two billion industrious Chinese doing deals and making money.
• Some of these views are just as valid today, but poverty is not necessarily morally improving. Poor people are not necessarily good people and rich people are not necessarily bad people.
• We as a country must do everything in our power to lift everyone out of abject poverty by creating opportunities for people to work and prosper.

By MUTUMA MATHIU
More by this Author

"Wanjiku, uka wone mbutu!” (Wanjiku, come and see fake eyelashes!”) a woman screeches at a high-end mall on the Thika superjamway.

Her friend, bloated with indignation, calls back, demanding that she come and see a dress going for Sh3,000. “Sh3,000. A whole Sh3,000! How dare they?” she screams and throws down the merchandise.

She and a large group of buddies go through the store systematically, outraged at blouses going for Sh1,500, handling, wrinkling, sometimes soiling the goods.

Outside, another large group is riding up and down in an escalator, lost in come kind of therapeutic rapture. A horde of the lumpen (the economically displaced or dispossessed) have come to visit the cash economy and though no purchases are made, there is plenty of entertainment and shocked outrage at the prices.

Had you asked me what I was some 15 years ago, I would have told you that I was a Neo-Marxist, that is a watered down Marxist who had survived the shock of the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

But thinking about it, I never really cared much for collective production and ownership and the idea of a workers’ dictatorship is, honestly, repugnant.

Marx’s analysis of capital and class struggle is, I think, very good work. Equally repugnant is crass capitalism and unfettered greed.

I have seen many analyses of China. Almost invariably, Western discussions of China tend to be soaked in fear of  Chinese expansion and perhaps China’s presumed unfair trade practices.

For me, the most striking thing about the modern Chinaman is the place of money in his life. Communism took God, or Buddha, or whatever, out of the life of the Chinese and for decades the party, its leaders, and ideology occupied that space in the hearts and minds of the masses.

By embracing some form of capitalism, again the Chinese masses have lost their religion and in its place has stepped money. That is why you find the Chinese pursuing money with such single-minded fervour.

I think the Communist party is clever, disciplined, and ruthless enough to control nearly two billion industrious Chinese doing deals and making money.

I also now see that my youthful idealism and romantic view of poverty were clearly misguided. I would not attend the career presentations by multinationals, neither would I work for them.

Their extractive activities, I believed, were exploitative and created poverty in the developing world. I thought the Bretton Woods institutions were instruments of imperialist oppression and wore “Spank the Bank” badges. I wanted to take part in street marches and protests against capitalism in cities across the world.

Some of these views are just as valid today, but poverty is not necessarily morally improving. Poor people are not necessarily good people and rich people are not necessarily bad people.

In other words, poverty is not necessarily good and wealth is not necessarily evil. Today, I suppose I am some kind of capitalist, but I identify with the poor; it is not an affectation, it is a question of old habits dying hard.

The opening of the Garden City Mall on Thika superjamway and the stories I have been hearing from there, of poor people from the deprived sections of the city visiting expensive stores, not to shop, but mainly as a day out to ogle the merchandise and curse the prices, is a reminder that the human race is not one but two: the poor and the rich.

The lumpen are tourists in the cash economy mesmerised by what natives regard as routine stuff. We as a country must do everything in our power to lift everyone out of abject poverty by creating opportunities for people to work and prosper.

Helping the mass of Kenyans out of grinding poverty ideologically justifies sacrifice by individuals. It is worthwhile to postpone your quest for immense riches, or indeed to shelve it altogether, for such a cause. As a matter of fact, it is a much worthier enterprise than a Chinese-like pursuit for riches.

We are never going to beat poverty unless we make some progress in reducing corruption. By being corrupt, the elite is taking opportunity out of the lives of the majority.

And Kenyans will forever be shouting in wonder at the sight of false eyelashes and riding escalators as if the experience is a massage at a sports club. No. Let us not make excuses for corruption.

Twitter: @mutuma­_mathiu