Corruption In Parliament- My beef with Kenyans

For weeks now Kenya has been abuzz with ‘news’ of corruption among members of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. The buzz is some members received bribes to water down a report on graft in the Office of The President. The sums involved are mind-boggling to most Kenyans. Some 2.8 billion shillings are believed to have leaked out some time before and immediately after the General Elections in 2013. The committee investigating the scum is said to have received bribes to go easy on the suspects. 

Incidentally the sting of the scandal appears directed at the committee for being compromised. The flack against the mandarins at Harambee House appears to have come as an after-thought. Somehow, corruption among civil servants is expected. Then too, the attack against the committee seems to have been pointed with partisanship in mind. It does not matter that the bipartisan committee returned a vote of confidence in its beleaguered chairman and opposition blue-eyed boy Ababu Namwamba. It later emerged Mr Namwamba had in his possession a recording of some committee members from his party confessing accepting bribes. 

'It is our turn to eat' is a common refrain among victorious sides after elections

Just how the members of the governing party in the committee happened to agree with their opposition counterparts on the suitability of Mr Namwamba continued leadership of the team beats me. The two sides in Parliament only agree when discussing a pay rise for themselves. It is possible even in this case it was mutually beneficial to maintain the status quo. It is not only I who raised eyebrows when Parliament opted for an in-house investigation instead of referring the matter to the criminal justice system. I can already hear the disciplinary team practising how to slap the committee on the wrists....

My beef with Kenyans is in expecting a meal after cooking a stone. You see, none of the men and women elected to Parliament is an angel. They are chosen from among us in a process often mired in corruption. For starters, if you have no money or no big money backers forget the race for parliament. It is not for shallow pockets. It is all very well if you can marshal the support of community leaders, the clergy, youth organisation and the like. Believe you me, if you do not have the money to grease their palms Parliament is not for you.

 The only other way to get to Parliament without palm-greasing is to start a big tribal or clan fight to marshal votes your side. That is why since the re-entry of multiparty politics elections have been punctuated with bouts of ethnic violence. The latest bout was fought in the Tana delta in the run-up to the last elections in 2013. The norm is for incumbents to stoke up ethnic fear and grease palms while the opposition paints a doomsday scenario among their supporters to get the vote out. Even then, moneyed supporters are given first chance on both sides. It is expensive to run a campaign of handouts even with government backing. So the party nominations are rarely a democratic exercise. They are a mere formality to rubber stamp a pre-selected team.

In the 2007 elections I queued behind a peasant woman who let it out for all within earshot that her choice was made on account of a fifty shilling handout, a piece of lesso cloth, a quarter kilo of sugar, two kilos of posho-meal and fifty grams of tealeaves. 

“I will vote for him,” She said. “He is the only one who gave me something. The rest of the candidates gave me nothing.”

When challenged if the gifts were worth the five years her favoured candidate stood to gain if elected she retorted, “Well, what will the others bring me in five years if I vote for them? Nothing!”

With that she killed the argument. For the most part Kenyans expect little from their representatives. The men and women of politics are in it for themselves and the only time to get something from them is during elections. Voters milk them dry during elections. The politicians who know what to give; to whom and when come out tops. Parliamentary seats are routinely auctioned to the highest bidder. If not, they are handed out easily to the biggest demagogue.

Why then do Kenyans expect these men (and a handful of women) to behave differently once in Parliament? Just as they gave they will take, and as they incited hatred so shall they in the ‘August’ House. Even as we call them names the Members of Parliament truly represent the people who elect them in word and deed. They are only the most corrupt among us and the most tribal we could get- that is why we elected them. And true to their word they are doing exactly that. We are only appalled because they were caught at it- not because we sent saints who turned into demons once in the House

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Here have it! You voted for corruption and its little sister tribalism!