Hollow words

There are many pivotal moments in Kenya's road to corruption. The debasement of the public service did not begin the other day. We have taken many steps to get to the point we are, and along the way, we have revealed our true selves, whether we serve in Government, ply our trade in the private sector, or scold the firmaments of both as vocal members of the Third Sector. I like to think that corruption, both inside and outside Government, became acceptable when the president allocated to himself his first acre of land in the style of the kings of England and the Popes of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

A few years ago, there was an apocryphal story of blue chip company's dealings in land in Ruaraka. There was no Government interest in the transactions - save for the taxes due. Yet there were rumours - as Kenyan rumours are won't - about "procurement irregularities" in the transaction that have simply refused to die down. The deal was eventually shelved and the company, instead, invested in land near Athi River and quietly proceeded with its housing project. It is one of dozens of stories about the degree of graft plaguing private-sector companies. These are stories we tend to ignore or pretend they didn't happen. All these stories can trace their roots to the betrayals visited upon Kenyans by their elected representatives, ministers of faith, corporate titans and leading university dons.

So it is a bit rich for the self-righteous among us to tom-tom their ethical and moral superiority, lay the blame for our Augean stables at the feet of the masses and their - and only their - elected representatives, and absolve the rest of the private sector from all responsibility. It is a simple argument: I am pure; the people I deal with are pure; therefore people like us couldn't possibly be corrupt; consequently it's your fault, Wanjiku, for electing thieves and robbers. As we discovered when senior members of the government procured a multi-billion shilling security system from a leading private-sector company, corruption requires two to tango, and members of the professional classes - lawyers, accountants and the like - to draw up the necessary papers and ratify the necessary agreements.

This morning there was a hilarious story about how bar-flies and bar owners were getting around the Covid curfew in Murang'a - an old but effective dodge. They'd simply lock themselves in the bar, turn down the lights, keep the noise down, and carry on: the bar owner turns a profit, the bar-fly can drink to his heart's content, and, presumably, Government is none the wiser. But in such a heavily police society like ours, only the naive believe that the forces of law and order are oblivious of the goings on in the dozens or Murang'a bars across the country that have actively conspired to convert themselves into Covid super-spreaders. If the police know, then their superiors know. If their superiors know, then their appointing authorities know. Everyone knows; everyone pretends not to know. And the self-righteous continue to live in their bubble.

The solution is straightforward. Because Wanjiku takes her cue from her community's leaders, from the president on down, then if we are to clean our Augean stables, enforcement must begin with the man - or woman - at the top. But so long as we give the high and mighty a free pass, and stay silent as they demonstrate the pecuniary value of bad behaviour, we have no moral authority to declaim pompously that the people are to blame for the shit they suffer on the daily. The stick isn't simply for the "hawkers" who flood the CBD or the makanga loudly touting for passengers on a blind corner. The hypocrisy of the opposite position is the reason why things are getting worse and why the un-human idea that money imbues one with probity keeps gaining credence.

Two members of my profession, seniors both, love visiting European cities that are clean, well-managed and devoid of the raucous chaos of Nairobi's streets. In their estimation, caucasian Europeans are better at municipal management than Black Kenyans and it shows in how clean European cities are and how filthy Kenyan towns are. The fallacy is obvious. Graft in high places in European cities is more often punished than not. In Kenya, the opposite is true - it is petty offenders aping their "leaders" that bear the brunt of anti-corruption law-enforcment while the high and mighty spend goodly portions of their ill-gotten gains paying senior members of my profession to keep their hides out of the Industrial Area Remand and Allocation Prison. Many of us would be willing to accept the claim that as professional advocates, we accept all manner of briefs because that is what the administration of justice demands. But because the bulk of graft is accomplished by legal eagles being the handmaids of the thieves in high places, the claim rings hollow.