Referendum: It is our time to eat

Pius Maundu

@piusmaundu

 

Throughout this week, a friend of mine in Rabat, Morocco serialized Taking ADvantage: The Sociological Basis of Greed, part of a Washington State University webinar, on his Facebook wall.  From Godfrey Musau’s posts, scions of punchy ad verbatim quotes on Richard Taflinger’s article, insights on greed from this title are spellbinding. For instance: 

“Why are lotteries and sweepstakes so successful? Why do Reno and Las Vegas attract millions of people to their casinos? Because, no matter how much it is decried, people are greedy: they all want more than they have, the the better.”

Going through the posts, the semblance between the inherent theme and Kenyan politics is not remote.  

Recently, the agitation for referenda in this country has risen to unprecedented levels, with the Opposition, Council of Governors, and members of county assemblies (MCAs) raring to run parallel polls. Besides, senators waited until this week to make real their plans to wriggle the public coffers dry. While these moves are icky at least in the eyes of Wanjiku, they are eye opening. 

For eons now, development in Kenya has been sacrificed at the altar of greed. Immediately after independence, President Jomo Kenyatta led from the front in annexing swathes of public land mainly in his Central Province backyard. Perhaps learning from the founding father, powerful individuals in subsequent regimes aggressively seized up acres of land meant for public facilities including playgrounds, schools, hospitals, cemeteries, and toilets. 

Wheeler-dealers not involved in grabbing public land were allowed to grind public service to a halt. Determined to single-handely profiteer from from the lucrative transport industry, for instance, these cartels  invested in matatus, praising privatization as the antidote to the country’s ailing industries. New entrants bore the brunt of the Mungiki, goons fashioned to stymie competition in the jua kali, and the Traffic Police. 

It should not be surprising if the proposed high capacity commuter buses project of the Nairobi City County remains just that: a proposal.  

Kamlesh Pattni’s classical heist tarred the 24-year tyrannical Moi regime. Just like all other episodes on greed, Goldenberg involved the high and mighty. Only minions, the size of Justice Joseph Mbalu Mutava, have been persecuted in connection to the Goldenberg scandal. 

In 2002, Raila Odinga, William Ruto, Charity Ngilu, Wamalwa Kijana, Najib Balala, and Simon Nyachae rallied against Moi. “Kibaki Tosha,” the signature campaign catchyphrase of the day, nubbed Kenyans to abandon their ethnic alignments and send Mwai Kibaki to State House. Kenyans, and indeed the world nation, were jubilant. 

Nothing changed when Mwai Kibaki became president. If anything, President Kibaki is credited for having insitutionalized ethnicity. 

John Githongo, an insider, had to run for his life when he pointed out momentous corruption inside President Kibaki’s administration. Githongo, the main subject in Michela Wrong’s “Its our time to Eat: The Story of a Kenya Whistle-Blower,” a book that lashes at the massive greed that characterized Kibaki’s leadership, is today an enemy of the state.

  

It is during this time that David Munyekei, the whistle-blower on Goldenberg scandals, died miserably. Before his death, the former Central Bank of Kenya clerk had been sacked, something that could have cuased the loss of his only parent. Today, no politician mentions David Munyekei. Similar ambivalency with issues touching on Wanjiku continues to blight our legislators, then and now.

Its hardly surprising therefore that when a Kenya Police Service agent rained bullets on Kwekwe Mwandaza, killing the 14-year-old, Ms Zeinab Kalekye Chidzuga, the Women Representative Kwale County, was indifferent. Equally insouciant was the area governor, Senator, MP and the local MCA.

Legislators in Kenya have perfected the art of taking the electorate for a ride. During the electioneering period, politicians brand themselves as the most approachable persons the world had. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter become awash with photo ops where aspiring politicians are blissfully interacting with voters. Oftentimes, when need arises, these politicians do not hesitate to pull the ethnic card to win votes. 

Elected leaders, in counties and national governments, play partisan politics at the expense of development. Legislators result to herd mentality to vote or shoot down legislation. In other times, their ethnic backgrounds inform their voting behavior. But when it comes to matters touching on themselves, politicians are quick to abandon their pseudo differences. 

Immediately members of parliament decide to increase their pay, Kenyans know for sure the exchequer has to suffer. I have lost count on the number of times Sarah Serem has been cowed by the legislators to give in to their demands. Creativity of the civil society does not abet legislators from doubling their salaries in the pretext that their electorate are becoming a nuisance. 

Perhaps this notoriety of legislators has heightened during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s regime. Every now and then, MCAs are arm twisting the government. The other day it was an increase in their salaries and allowances. Recently, together with the governors, MCAs opined that their spouses deserve pay as compensation for the their endurance of long hours when these legislators are laboring for the electorate. 

Its not only MCAs in Meru that are making these overtures. In Kisumu, for instance, they are fighting to be spared from paying parking fees for the cars the County bought them. They want to be treated like VIPs. 

Away from MCAs, governors are asking the national government for more funds. Either this call started or heightened at the point when senators made a bold step towards installing accountability in counties. The telltale that business was not going to be as usual between the duo was the governors deciding unanimously to shun a proposed meeting with senators in Mombasa scheduled for August 2014. 

On their part, senators have realized that they need their salaries and allowances increased. One of the reasons they advance for this is that they need to be able to afford offices from where to serve the electorate. While these developments are utterly interesting, the national government will find alternative persuasion a hard-sell. 

In the 2013/2014 financial year, the government spent a whooping 1.8 billion on cars for the executive. 

Importantly, these calls for more reward by MCAs, MPs, Senators, Governors show how greed is unifying. Kenyans will be mesmerized when politicians remind them of how the other community has had a upper hand in causing their present economic situation. Consequently, they would even get up in machetes and slay their infiltrating outsiders. 

During pressors, politicians curse these heinous acts, and retreat to the comfort of their family members. They have systems in place to ensure that their enterprises are safe. Importantly, they come together against ethnic and partisan alliances and support calls that translate to more money out of the pockets of their voters into their pockets. 


Musau’s last post in the serialization goes like this: 

“Nonetheless, however you regard it, unrestrained greed is detrimental to society.”