National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi and Senate Speaker Ken Lusaka. PHOTO FILE | NMG
Recycling, in the context of environmental protection, saves us
money in the long run, and teaches us to take up the responsibility for
creating a healthy environment in which to live.
But
most importantly, by helping to preserve the planet, recycling ensures
existence of our species. It cannot be overstated, therefore, that
recycling in this context is a moral and existential need.
There
is in Kenya, however, another kind of “recycling” that makes us poor,
inculcates a culture of impunity, and which threatens our existence as a
modern nation-state.
I am talking about recycling of
mediocre, incompetent, uninspiring, and, quite possibly, criminal
officials in government or civil service.
In the era
of Kanu, performance was not really a consideration in the appointment
of state officials. The governing system, as was the case in other
African countries at the time, was based on patronage.
Those
appointed to Cabinet or other state jobs were the regime’s sycophants
or those who were judged ready to become cog wheels of a well-oiled
thieving machine.
Development, as one critic would
famously write with respect to Africa of the time, was not really on the
agenda. A regime considered itself successful by its longevity in
power.
Why, for instance, is Robert Mugabe still in
power when he can hardly stay awake for a few minutes, let alone be able
to summon the intellectual and physical effort required to lead a
country so desperate in need of economic and political development.
But
despite the country being in limbo, Mugabe considers himself
successful. And, according to many sources, and demonstrative of the
real purpose of power in Africa, Mugabe is fabulously wealthy.
As a matter of fact, all presidents from that era, their families, cronies and sycophants are the richest people in Africa.
But
has the coming of democracy and coming to power of a younger and,
seemingly more enlightened leadership, changed the mentality described
above?
Does the leadership now make appointments
strictly on the basis of values such as integrity, intelligence and
commitment, etc? Can we say that the purpose of power today is
development?
Let’s take Kenya as a case study. Ken
Lusaka, the newly elected speaker of the senate is the immediate former
governor of Bungoma.
During his tenure, his
administration is reputed to have purchased wheelbarrows at a cost of
tens of thousands of shillings each.
Looters’ paradise
In
this looters’ paradise, a ballpoint was purchased at thousands of
shillings. The end result of this misappropriation of public funds, and
the general inefficiency and maladministration is that Bungoma County
remains as poor today as it was five years ago.
Now,
the man at the helm of that administration will now preside over the
institution that is supposed to oversight the use of money in the
counties! Are we a serious nation?
And in the National
Assembly, Justin Muturi has been elected once again as Speaker. It is
generally acknowledged, even by people who would be considered
sympathetic, that he presided over a house whose intellectual level of
debate and whose integrity sank to Kanu-era standards.
In
many instances, the MPs sounded like Kanu youth-wingers of old. Muturi
shepherded through the House controversial Bills, including, most
infamously, a security Bill which contained unconstitutional clauses.
It
was during his tenure when MPs used false mileage claims so as to add
to their already sizeable loot extorted from Kenyan taxpayers. Instead
of showing leadership by putting brakes on the freak gravy train, he
supported the MPs.
Now, with even worse intellectual
abilities and questionable ideological grounding of incoming MPs, we
must brace ourselves, to adapt the title of a tale from The Arabian
Nights, for Season 2 of Justin Muturi and the 349 thieves.”
Kenya
has no shortage of young, driven, moral individuals of whatever
political persuasion and ethnicity who can raise the bar of public duty;
who will understand success to mean transforming lives and communities;
who will stake their personal reputation on the social and economic
progress they bring about.
These are the people who
can panel-beat our concept of public duty , crafted in the crucible of
the thieving pre-democracy era, and bring it in line with our
constitutional and economic aspirations.
We must stop the use of state jobs as instruments of patronage to reward political friends and business partners.
We
must see these jobs as being central to our social and economic
development project, and, therefore, award them to the most intelligent
and the most committed in our society.
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