Corruption: par for the course

Is Kenya in a crisis? To hear the government's mouthpieces, the country is not in crisis. To hear the sour grapes of the Minority Party, the economy is in the shitter and the tourists will not visit. The facts, however, are mixed. The cash crisis facing the government is based on statistics that are heavily contested by both sides. But to my mind, the cash crisis is not an existential one; while it will make life more difficult for more Kenyans, it is not a sufficient enough reason to say that the country is in a crisis. Kenyans have, after all, always faced tough economic times, especially when t comes to accessing credit from finance institutions.

Some bishops of the Church of Rome suggest that the political talk is a grave risk. They forget that poisonous political talk is a staple of Kenya's particular brand of multiparty politics. Since 1990, the politics of Kenya has been poisoned with ethnic hatred fomented on all sides and, during elections, turned into ethnicised violence by one against the other. 2007/2008 witnessed what could happen when poisonous political talk was taken too far, but it only differed in degree from the ;elections violence of 1992 and 1997.

The fundamentals of Kenya remain as they always have. Political corruption might appear to be rampant, but it is no different from that which prevailed during the KANU era or the Anglo-Leasing era. Public tenders continue to be awarded to well-connected Kenyans; tax receipts continue to fluctuate between good and catastrophic; youth unemployment remains high; industrial action, especially in the public sector, remains common; political "realignment" remains a fact of multipartyism. There may be a new government in power, relatively speaking, but the situation n Kenya has not changed all that much. Kenya is not in crisis; Kenya goes about its affairs as it has always done.

What is new, though, is the total lack of cohesion among the opposition parties, whether they are represented in parliament or in the NGO sector. The ruling coalition has somehow managed to encourage opposition in many diverse areas, splitting the united opposition into disjointed, disparate bands without a common purpose, a common narrative or a common leader. This, I believe, has created the impression that Kenya is in a crisis because different voices are complaining about different things at the same time.

The only true crisis in Kenya is the one which has persisted for decades: corruption. No matter how much distracting takes place - online and off - the only true crisis remains that of the corruption that engulfs the public sector. It colours everything, from the crisis in education to the crisis in healthcare to the crisis in development to the crisis in transport to the cash crisis in government and so on and so forth. Without the existence of public officials with their hands in the public cookie jar, the so-called crises in Kenya would not exist. The lip service paid to eradicating corruption is being exposed, every day, for the empty talk of the unimaginative.

Few Kenyans are convinced that corruption can be reduced or eradicated. Most Kenyans, especially most Kenyans employed in white collar jobs, wish they were in the same position as Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries or heads of procurement. Many of them wish to be appointed to boards of parastatals or as the parastatals' CEOs. Few of them have faith any longer n the anti-corruption strategy of their government and have come to the rational conclusion that sooner or later, their time to eat must come too and they would be fools not to do as those who have gone before them have done.

It is now acceptable in polite company to flaunt ill-gotten wealth, to boast of connections in government and to ignore the pain and suffering wrought by corrupt public officials. After all, those in pain, suffering from depredation, have no one to blame but themselves for not being hardworking enough to amass the fabulous wealth it is now popular to flaunt. If you do not own a Lamborghini or a Ferrari or a mansion in Karen or Kitisuru or a holiday home in Malindi, it is your fault because you do not have the balls to take chances when they present themselves.

Kenyans are quite tolerant, once you ignore their political intolerance or their religious hypocrisies, and their tolerance has been stretched to the limit. The hope that this tolerance will be stretched forever is the only thing that keeps the graft gravy train running. Those in power, those stealing from Kenyans, hope that Kenyans will do absolutely nothing about the graft because Kenyans want inn on the graft. They may be right. After all, for Kenyans used to getting robbed blind by their own religious leaders in the name of God, being robbed by their political and business leaders is just par for the course.