Not good at all.

Unless we have been operating in an information blackout, we have little doubt as to the deleteriousness of corruption, its malign effects on the soul of a nation, its hollowing out of the institutions of state, its utter evil. If there are positives, they are well hidden behind the misery corruption engenders.

By "corruption" we  do not mean the undercutting between private citizens, though it includes that too. We mean the conversion of public goods and services to the private benefit of a few. For example, the diversion of drugs meant for a public hospital to the private pharmacy of a public officer for sale at cut rates. We mean the acceptance of bribes by traffic policemen in order for a motorist to drive while intoxicated or to drive an unroadworthy vehicle or both. We mean the inflation of the contract price for the construction of a public road, the difference being diverted into the pockets of a public official. These examples almost always led to misery in the long run.

Context is important to understand what corruption means, especially in Kenya. Langata Road primary School is a state-funded school. It is in the vicinity of the Wilson Airport in Nairobi. The Wilson Airport is classified as a 'sensitive" place by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority and the County Government of Nairobi City, meaning that building developments in the vicinity are restricted to a certain height, and all construction is controlled within a specified radius from the airport. Some of the land adjacent to the school belonged to the Civil Aviation Authority for the purposes of the safety and security of operations at the airport. Belonged.

No one exactly knows when this land ceased to belong to the civil aviation body. There is little documentation to indicate the rationale behind the transfer of the land and the development of the land beyond the scope of the rules laid down by the county government or the civil aviation body. These changes took place after a concerted effort to reduce the radius around the airport for which development was controlled. That radius no longer exists. All along, the children of the school enjoyed the use of a playing field next to their school. Until the provenance of the playing field came into doubt, the children became pawns in a fight for the playing field, and teargas was used against them. Misery is the handmaiden of corruption.

Many are willing to look at fancy hotels, shopping malls and blocks of flats as the positives of corruption, creating construction jobs where none existed, and boosting the stock of hotel rooms and homes where they were low. But they refuse to see that if it were corrupt acts that led to the acquisition of the land in the first place, few rules would be followed during the development of the land. Neither the labour rules nor the environmental ones would be followed. You can bet the minimum wage would be ignored too. It is almost certain that corners will be cut during construction and the occupancy certificates for the buildings would not be worth the paper they are printed on.

In Nyama Kima quite recently a building under construction came tumbling down killing dozens. The prosecution of those responsible remains shrouded in mystery. All over the country, these kinds of collapses have become commonplace. In no case has it been shown to be because of an act of nature; in all cases it has been demonstrated to be because of graft. Misery, I tell you, and corruption are intertwined intimately. Anyone who sees misery as the price to be paid for fancy hotels, malls or flats has never faced the kind of pain the families of dead construction workers face or is just plain heartless in their pursuit of lucre, filthy lucre. Neither prospect is a good thing.