Has Kenya specialized in creating scandals and fiascos at the expense of solving them

By: Jerry Okungu

[ Posted On: 2006-06-25 ]

The other day I got a call from a radio journalist from one of our local stations. He sounded desperate and anxious. He was naturally perturbed at the rate of scandals Kenya was churning out with less response mechanism in solving them. He was shocked at the number of financial and social scandals that Kenya has had to deal with in the last one year yet there seemed to be no end in the production line.

After mentioning a few and asking for my comment, I hang up my phone but kept wondering what exactly I had been talking about? But what disturbed me more was the concern of this young man in his radio studio, raising fundamental issues that apparently the powers that be, the people we have entrusted with our authority, the people we pay to deal with these issues were apparently not bothered about.

Two days later, as I lay in my bed, memories of my conversation with the young man came back haunting me. I went through the motions of our discussion and flashed back to the year 2005 around the same time in June. Then I started counting how many national scandals and blunders that had made headlines nationally and nationally had we accomplished. As I kept on counting, I realized that my ten fingers were not enough. I needed the ten toes on my two feet to complete the count.

Believe it or not, this country has had more than fifteen fiascos and scandals of varying nature in the last 12 months. This is an average of at least one scandal a month! Just to give you an idea, this is the line up to date:

Early in the year, the Nation Media Group was invaded by a high ranking State House personality. This raid caught the outgoing World Bank Representative to Kenya in the cross-fire. He had held a farewell party in the neighbourhood of the State House personality at her displeasure. The Nation’s crime was to report the incident.

Months down the line, the Constitution Referendum Fiasco was stage-managed by the then powerful Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, Kiraitu Murungi when he decided that the Referendum Campaign was a government project and government resources would be spent to ensure the government won the vote. It didn’t work that way.

While the Referendum Contest was in progress, John Githongo, then advisor to the President on the war against corruption bolted from the government and went into exile in Britain citing a threat on his life from corruption officials in the Kibaki government. But the real dossier of the Githongo fiasco had to wait until the results of the referendum were known before he went live on BBC to tell his story to the world.

On that score alone, Githongo brought down three most powerful ministers in the Narc regime, i.e. Kiraitu Murungi, Chris Murungaru and David Mwiraria. Meanwhile Vice President Moody Awori and Attorney General Amos Wako only escaped by a whisker due to their tenacity and indifference to public opinion.

As Githongo’s Anglo Leasing dossier was claiming three cabinet ministers while threatening the lives of two more, the fifteen year old Goldenberg Financial Scandal had finally taken its toll on George Saitoti, the man alleged to have been the prime mover of the scam in his days at the Treasury.

And just when we thought we would forget the nightmare of the Referendum fiasco and get down to the business of prosecuting the Golden Berg, Anglo Leasing and the Ndungu land grabbers, from the woodworks emerged the Artur brothers with even a more sensational thriller- the thriller that quickly overshadowed all the financial scandals on the table. This is not to mention the case of Lord Delamere’s grandson who in a spate of four months had murdered two Africans in cold blood.

The Artur brothers’ fiasco can be described as the work of a belligerent child that is prone or bent on inflicting all sorts of injury on himself. Whoever conceived the idea of the two mercenary brothers coming here for some specialized job definitely did not undertake due diligence on their methods of operation.

The brothers hit town with a bang for the wrong reasons. If they came as under cover hit squads then they didn’t have the finesse. If they came as camouflaged business men to finance some operations, nobody had availed them the ABC of masquerading as business men worth taking seriously.

The Artur brothers can fairly be described as serial goofers. They goofed at every corner at the slightest opportunity. They behaved as if they were from Mars and had never lived among and interacted with humans. Seeing them swagger left and right complete with the ugliest ornaments I had ever seen on humans, one was easily reminded of Gulliver’s Travels; how Gulliver the giant handled and interacted with little characters in strange lands.

Who does not know that serious business men never carry a million dollars in their briefcases to prove they have money in press conferences? Who does not know that serious business men cannot under normal circumstances wear cheap clothing easily obtainable in Kikomba and Kariokor mitumba markets? Who does not know that serious under cover operatives would never commit silly crimes like hijacking people’s cars and hide them in their compound or even throw parties for cheap journalists and wanna be celebrities that have yet to be village clowns?

Yet, this was the behaviour of our political and economic saviours from Eastern Europe.

As we smarted over the shame that the Armenians visited upon us; as we breathed a sigh of relief with their deportation for whatever reason and a refreshing budget from Amos Kimunya, little did we know that another fiasco was waiting in the wings!

Today, of all the days, Uchumi Super Market stands closed. It is allegedly closed for a number of reasons. Some claim that its former and current directors ran it down before fleeing with their cash. Others now claim unfair trade practices visited upon it by its only competitor in the market- Nakumatt.

Now Nakumatt has been associated with the closed Charterhouse Bank for alleged involvement in money laundering, unethical practices, tax evasion, capital flight and all manner of criminal activities one would not like to associate with a bank and a seemingly very successful local business like Nakumatt.

As we ponder over the 1000 jobs lost at Uchumi, we must grapple with 3000 jobs on the line if the government moves to close Nakumatt for its involvement in unethical if not criminal activities.

Meanwhile we must ask Martha Karua, Amos Wako and Aaron Ringera, Tobiko and Justice Gicheru how they plan to complete bringing to justice all alleged criminals in the Judiciary, Golden Berg, Anglo Leasing, the Standard Raid, Delamere Killings, the Ndungu’ Land Probe, the Artur Scandal Network, Uchumi economic criminals, Charterhouse Bank directors, Nakumatt directors and all those cases that have been investigated by Ringera but have not been charged!

Is the Justice Department up to the task or are we manufacturing punishable crimes at a faster rate?

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

Jerry Okungu is a freelance political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya. Jerry also serves as a Board Director at The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. Jerry has written extensively on issues affecting Kenya and the rest of Africa over the years. Other articles written by Jerry Okungu are available at this location

| View Profile & All Articles By: Jerry Okungu |

		Post Comment
		Blog This Article!
		Discuss Article in Forum(s)
		Publication \| Reprint Terms

Please Rate this Article

Not yet Rated

Click the XML Icon Above to Receive Africa Articles Via RSS!

| Category Feeds | All-in-one Feed | Other Feed & Syndication Options |

Additional Articles From - Home | Politics | Africa

	Print This Article
	Post Comment
	Add To Favorites
	Email To Friends
	Ezine Ready \| Syndication
	Make PDF Article
	Share in FaceBook
	Post To del.icio.us
	Post To Furl
	Add To Google Bookmarks
	Submit To Propellor
	Add To Yahoo! My Web
	Add Main Feed To Outlook
	Post to BookMarks @ AfroArticles.com

	Post To BookMarkAfrica.com

| More Subscription Options |

Site Home

Article Categories

More Search Options

Site Map

Submit Articles

Top Authors

Most Recent Articles