MARKETING AFRICA MAL 18/17 mal 18:17 online | Page 58

tyranny and that of parliamentary
democracy ought to be mutually
exclusive, at all times.
Now whole tribes will flow in this
stream of ethnic zombification.
It does not matter that they
are professionals, or that they
belong to the class of our spiritual
superiors. We have learnt to hate
people who do not belong to our
tribes more than we love ourselves
and our children. We would rather
have a thief from our midst being
in charge of government than an
honest man from some other tribe.
If we loved ourselves more than we
hated others, public accountability
would not be so elusive.
In a few weeks’ time, Kenyans
will go out to vote in the general
elections. Indications so far are
that the elections will not be based
on any ideological agenda, except
the ideology of negative ethnicity.
The lie that is negative ethnicity
is the most portent force against
making public finance count.
Politicians know that their
tribesmen will vote for
them, regardless of any other
consideration. For the time being,
it does not matter how much any
one individual plunders the public
coffers. When he or she goes back
to the tribe, or the clan, they will
support him or her. And s/he will
use the same ill-gotten wealth to
buy his or her way back to power.
Inefficiency and impunity
A systemic and organic challenge
to making public finance count
exists beyond the trinity of public
finance, procurement and audit. It
assumes the shape of a nexus that
makes mockery of all pretext to
public accountability. The auditing
function has often not co-operated
with the public finance and
procurement in the conspiracy to
raid public coffers.
Historically, the Auditor General
has made mindboggling disclosures
about abuse of public finance by
people in high places. Regrettably,
no action has ever been taken
against the offenders.
These may be people whom we
have cause to believe that they have
stolen, or they may be people who
have been negligent with public
finance. The disclosures against
them never go beyond the value of
temporary shock to the taxpaying
‘‘ There is need to re-educate the educated
professional class in Kenya. The educated
intelligentsia must begin learning to maintain a
certain professional aristocratic distance from
the thieves in their tribe. The intelligentsia is
an agenda setting class. This is the latter day
Patrician community. When it coughs, the
Plebs catch the cold. This class cannot afford to
worship in empty tribal shrines if the country’s
public finance is expected to begin counting and
making a difference.’’
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public. They are forgotten after
a few days. Life goes on, until
when the next wave of appalling
disclosures comes around. Even the
media is quick to drop its interest
in the heist, as it follows one
political red herring after the other.
That nothing happens after the
Auditor General’s report is good
enough assurance and motivation
for the stealing class to go on with
the business of stealing. For they
know that nothing will happen to
them. This is impunity at its best.
Next to this, they know that there
will always be a tribal crowd out
there to shout out in their support.
Following strai ned relations
between the Kenya Government
and the development partners’
world in the 1990s, Kenya was
arm-twisted into putting in place
an anti-corruption parastatal in
1991. The Kenya Anti Corruption
Authority went on to become the
Kenya Anti corruption Commission
and now we have the Ethics and
Anti Corruption Commission.
Put together with the Directorate of
Public Prosecutions, the Criminal
Investigations Department and the
Kenya Police generally, Kenya has
what should be a formidable army
against theft from public coffers.
Besides, these authorities have the
back up of the Public Accounts
Committee of Parliament and other
oversight entities that make ours one
of the most policed public services
anywhere in the world.
Yet, conversely, Kenya remains
highly ranked among the
corrupt countries in the world.
Last year (2016) February, a
PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey
indicated that Kenya was the third
most corrupt country in the world,
after South Africa and France.
This report came two days after
President Uhuru Kenyatta told
Kenyans in Israel that Kenyans