MARKETING AFRICA MAL 18/17 mal 18:17 online | Page 53

Preamble
I
argue in this paper that a
country has the levels of public
accountability that it deserves,
for the time being. Every nation
has the leaders that it deserves.
And it deserves the leaders that it
has, no matter how good or bad
they may be.
If public accountability is poor,
it is because the people do not
collectively demand higher
standards, although they may
privately yearn for them. I am
also to argue that quite often,
even reasonable and well educated
people will sacrifice what is good
for them – as individuals and as
a nation – at the altar of narrow
emotional attachment to a spurious
group identity, often without
such identity delivering anything
substantive to anybody, except to
those who exercise political power.
In the Kenyan context, the most
portent group identity is that of
the tribe. The power barons will
appeal to this group solidarity to
sustain themselves in power and
to entrench their abuse of public
resources.
I conclude that in order for a
people to make public money
count through enforcement of
accountability, there is need to take
a fresh look at a people’s sense of
nationhood as a critical predicate
to holding our leaders to account.
Professionals must have abiding
interest in politics. They must
consciously strive to influence
political trends and outcomes.
They must come out to vote and
ask others to come out and vote,
too.
Introduction
Richard Heeks, a probity
governance scholar, says
that effective design and
implementation processes will
enable gap closures and improve
the likelihood of success in
efforts to make public money
count through increased public
accountability. However, beyond
such enablers, it is the politics of
the situation that determine the
drivers to anti-corruption successes.
Enablers and gap closures may
include such interventions as
creating what are expected to
be powerful anti-corruption
authorities, police reforms,
strengthening of public
prosecution processes, tightening
procurement processes, reforming
the Judiciary, reforming public
auditing standards, and the like.
Yet, ultimately, it is the politics of
the situation that will eventually
determine the rate of success or
failure.
Among the very first things that
the Mwai Kibaki government
did soon after it came to power
in December 2002 was re-
organization of the procurement
function in the Public Service. All
serving officers were dis-engaged
and advised to re-apply for their
jobs. The new Minister in charge
of the National Treasury, Daudi
Mwiraria, explained that this was
the first step in fighting corruption
in the Public Service. The Kibaki
government had come to power
pledging to end corruption in the
Public Service.
In his inaugural address on 31
December 2002, President Kibaki
had promised the nation that there
was going to be stringent public
accountability. There would be
zero tolerance to corruption. Up
to this moment, the country had
been treated to repeated waves of
allegations of high-level corruption.
The Goldenberg Scandal of 1991–
1992 was the mother of all scams
in Public Service in the country.
The Kibaki government had hardly
been in power for a few months
when Kenyans began hearing of
another Goldenberg-kind-of-
scam, the Anglo Leasing Scandal.
A prominent minister in the
Kibaki government would later
brazenly refer to Anglo Leasing
as “the scandal that never was.”
A Permanent Secretary who had
been specifically hired to lead
the onslaught against corruption
would flee the country and later
on resign in exile. He said that the
cancer of corruption had found its
way into the heart of the Kibaki
government. There was no will in
the government to fight corruption,
he said.
At the heart of this harsh
indictment was the “scandal that
never was” minister. This minister
is cited in the famous book by
Michela Wrong, Our Turn To Eat,
as having asked the permanent
secretary, John Githongo, to “go
easy on this government, it is our
turn to eat.”
Ever since, the story of public
sleaze and scandal has become the
most common coin of government
in Kenya. Kenyans are treated to
one appalling disclosure of high-
level corruption, after the other. It
has become the rhyme and rhythm
of our life; a part of our national
character, almost to the extent
that it does not seem to matter
anymore.
Today we have a national budget
of 2.6 trillion Kenya shillings.
The corruption narratives that
we have heard about NYS,
Eurobond, Afya House and
assorted scams, amount to about
1.3 trillion shillings, collectively.
About half of the national budget
easily, therefore, goes towards
sponsoring corruption in National
Government. This is to say
nothing of what is happening in
County Governments across the country.
Even the political Opposition, that
enjoys casting itself in the mould
of crusaders against corruption,
shockingly remains silent