Farwell Githongo, we hardly knew yee

My take on Corruption is that, it is clear and present danger and it will continue for decades to come, unless Kenyans change their thinking regarding corruption. To understand the prevalence of corruption today, it is useful to look at the corruption of years past (Moi years) - from which one can see that (i) there are no consequences of corruption to a minister - no Minister who had corruption allegations about him ever lost a parliamentary seat or was charged in court/resigned, and if they were voted out/sacked it was for reasons that had nothing to do with corruption. (ii) That Kenyans care more about development, In fact such ‘tainted’ ministers brought more development to their constituents than their less controversial counterparts (iii) therefore Ministers today expect Kenyans to be as docile about corruption as they were during Moi days and wait for development. (Kibaki to Ndwiga: kwani umekula mbuzi yanani?)

So perhaps the Government, perhaps rightly feels, that development matters more to voters than corruption – and voters rarely see the correlation between corruption and their lives. While they applauded Ministers who build hospitals and roads, they failed to realise that corruption left their hospitals without medicine, and their new tarmac roads soon collapsed as they were sub-standard.

Githongo resigned because he was serving a Government that had no interest in his work or and was in fact sabotaging his work (they actually cancelled his anti-corruption office in the 2004 reshuffle before restoring him hours after diplomats raised a fuss)

Following Gladwell Otieno and John Githongo, next to resign should be Mutava Musyimi, the entire Constitution Review Committee, Ali Mwakwere, and we should give Ringera time to prove whether he’s serving Kenyans or paying lip service.

Also to resign should be the public communications (propaganda) secretary, Dr. Alfred Mutua. The real government spokesman, with the access, and authority to speak for the president, is the less eloquent, but all-powerful Amb. Francis Muthaura. He issued a statement accepting Githongo’s resignation from State House, while Dr. Mutua issued a statement on a vague radio station implying that Githongo had left for greener pastures. You can catch Dr. Mutua wax poetic on Citizen TV on Saturday afternoon