Disaster and Impunity

It is time we admitted that disaster and impunity are inextricably linked. Over one hundred men, women and children were killed yesterday when a fire engulfed part of the Sinai slum in Nairobi's industrial area. As usual, members of the chattering classes were quick with why the disaster happened, who was to blame and what the solution to future disasters is. Also, as expected, were members of the political class, including the visibly agitated Head of State and Prime Minister, visiting with the injured at the Kenyatta National Hospital and on the ground at the scene of disaster. 

As usual, again, it was left to Kiraitu Murungi, the Minister for Energy, to make a stupid statement. It remains to be seen what the hyperactive Gideon Mbuvi alias Mike Sonko, the Member for Makadara, in which the Sinai slum falls, will make of the latest tragedy to occur in his constituency. The last time a fire took place in his constituency, Hon Mbuvi led his constituents in rejecting the assistance of the Ministry of Special Programmes, going so far as to kick out Hon Esther Murugi, the Minister, out of the area.

We have, over the past decade or so, concentrated on impunity at the political and Executive levels of government. Our attention, as primed by members of the press, has concentrated overwhelmingly, and justifiably, at the politicians and public servants who have benefited unfairly and unlawfully from the positions they wielded in Kenyatta's, Moi's and Kibaki's governments. We also turned our outraged attentions on the officials in our local authorities who had used their positions in the councils to enrich themselves at the expense of providing quality and affordable municipal services to the residents of our burgeoning and developing metropolises, cities and towns. 

However, we studiously turned a blind eye to the impunity with which we engaged in our day-to-day lives, the petty corruption that we fostered by our attitude towards officialdom and our animus against rules and regulations meant not only to protect our properties but safeguard our lives. As a result, we see no contradiction in calling for the resignations of government officials 'implicated' in scandals of one shade or the other, but turning a blind eye to the blatant violations of traffic rules, even simple ones as the use of prescribed bus stages to board and alight from public service vehicles.

Therefore, today we will call for the heads of the officials in the Ministry of Local Government, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Lands, the Ministry of Special Programmes and the City Council of Nairobi, but ignore the fact that the people living in the Kenya Pipeline Company's wayleave did so contrary to the clear provisions of law and in defiance of the numerous warnings from the Company and other stakeholders of the risks that they were courting in their continued stay. Reforms are taking place in government that it is hoped will make life bearable for the majority of Kenyans in the years to come. However, these reforms will be to no avail if Kenyans do not hold themselves to the same high standards they demand of their government.

Therefore, it is pointless to wring our hands and weep in sorrow when we refuse to do that which we know to be right. As a first step, the government must take steps to raze to the ground, regardless of the pain and suffering that will ensue, the Sinai slum and relocate its residents, either to makeshift camps, or as some will no doubt suggest, back to their up-country homes. Slum upgrading, as the Kibera and Mathare experiences have shown, are prone to the same corrupt tendencies of all major government projects so a new strategy is needed, one that empowers the residents of these slums and reminds them that regardless of their straitened circumstances, nothing in this world is free except the grace of God.