Kenya Socialist Web Site
HARAKATI ISSUE NO. 5 (August/September 1999)
CORRUPTION IN KENYA: THE SYSTEM IS ROTEN TO THE CORE
According to Kenya's Chief Justice Zacheus Chesoni, corruption in the
country is spreading faster than Aids while Transparency International says
that Kenya is the 3rd most corrupt country in the world after Nigeria and
Rwanda. Fraud perpetrated by crooks in the government has transformed corruption
to official culture within the KANU State. The President, the Vice president,
top Cabinet ministers, Members of Parliament, the Attorney General, High
Court Judges, Magistrates, Permanent secretaries, Police officers,
Civil servants and other high ranking government personnel have all been
implicated in theft and swindling of public funds.
The Anti-corruption Authority established by the corrupt regime to sought
out the mess has failed to bring to justice even a single thief. Commissions
established by Dictator Daniel arap Moi to investigate corruption scandals
have all gone under after guzzling millions of taxpayers money. The situation
is such that the question which has to be raised is whether a revolution
is required to kick out the gangster capitalist ruling class, eliminate the
profit system of government that promotes corruption and establish a base
for the social and economic reconstruction of Kenya after 35 years of plunder.
This is because the alternative is to recycle old garbage under the rotten
system to continue looting the country's wealth as the suffering of
Wananchi continues.
Increasing poverty, 50% unemployment, wide craters on roads, reduced life
expectancy, enormous wealth on the hands of the exploiters, runaway prices
of consumer commodities, falling standards of life and collapsed social services
are all linked to corruption, embezzlement and looting of the economy by
the rich. To date Ksh 357 billion stolen from the country has been stashed
away in foreign bank accounts. Many Kenyans are being led to believe that
the removal of corrupt politicians like Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott
and Vice president George Saitoti, or even the overthrow of the corrupt
Moi/KANU dictatorship is enough to eradicate corruption in the country. It
is the standpoint of KYMS that the whole political system is
rotten to the core and needs a replacement.
The Ksh 68 billion Goldenberg scandal has assumed the distinction of "Kenya's
corruption scandal of the century", a scum that has also engulfed the head
of State, Dictator Moi and his sibling, Gideon Moi. The involvement of Vice
president George Saitoti and Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott in the Goldenberg
infamy demonstrates that high level corruption is directly linked to those
with access to the bureaucratic State apparatus which they use to steal the
national wealth and to avoid prosecution for economic crimes. How else could
Professor Saitoti have transferred Ksh 112.3 billion from the Central Bank
of Kenya during the financial years 1991-92 without trace? Or how could Ksh
107 billion have been wasted on bogus projects during the 94/95 financial
year by government officials without action?
In Kenya, Investment in public services or infrastructure is impossible because
the government spends 60% of its revenue in servicing foreign debts which
have been stolen by politicians. Under Kenya's capitalism, the ruling class
has powers to sidestep Parliament and authorise illegal spending of public
funds thereby creating a big loophole with which to defraud the public. This
was the case with the construction of the Ksh 4 billion Eldoret airport,
the purchase of the Ksh 3 billion Presidential jet and the secret construction
of the Eldoret Ordinance Bullet Factory at a cost of 80 million US Dollars
stolen from the tax payer. While the factory produces 20 million 7.62 calibre
bullets per year, 15 million Kenyans are living below the absolute
poverty level.
During 1996/97 financial year, the Public Accounts Committee reports that
Ksh 1.2 billion was spent illegally by the government, up from 900 million
spent the previous year. The system is so decayed that the National Bank
of Kenya paid Ksh 1.5 billion to service private debts of top thieves in
the government without a finger being raised. Another Ksh 8.7 billion was
lost by the Central Bank of Kenya when four political banks collapsed with
money owed to the Central Bank! KYMS believes that the colossal amount of
public funds stolen every year by organised thieves that run the government,
together with the country's enormous human and natural resources are enough
to fund the social and economic transformation of Kenya. The question is
how this can be done.
Under capitalism, and whenever capitalists fail to enrich themselves through
the normal methods of capitalist exploitation (doing business), they always
resort to bribery and corruption, embezzlement of public funds, tax evasion,
open looting of the economy and other Mafia-like methods of stealing wealth
belonging to the public.
Available evidence indicate that corruption in Kenya is linked to senior
government officers who defraud the public by exploiting the system. For
example, other big names connected to the ugly Goldenberg scum include those
of Joseph Nyaga (Cabinet minister), Hosea Kiplagat (Cooperative Bank Chairman),
Joshua Kulei (Dictator Moi's private secretary), Noah arap Too (former CID
Director), Effie Owuor (Court of a Appeal Jugde) and Mukesh Gohil (Gideon
Moi's personal Assistant).
If individuals have not stolen money directly in a given scandal, huge amounts
of money simply disappear in irregular deals or in white elephant projects.
A case in point is that of Saitoti and Biwott who exerted pressure on the
Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation to release Ksh 850 million
for the construction of a Soya bean development plant that was never constructed.
In June this year, it came to light that Ksh 850 million that had been set
aside for carpeting the Taveta road had been embezzled while another Ksh
300 million set aside for repairing a road in Othaya had also been diverted.
When the National Bank of Kenya was faced with imminent collapse after money
was stolen from the Bank by well placed thieves in KANU, the government pumped
Ksh 4.5 billion from the treasury to rescue the bank. This action came soon
after Mr. Musikari Kombo revealed in Parliament that the Kenya Commercial
Bank was owed Ksh 5 billion by four corrupt KANU politicians who had been
advanced loans illegally.
In fact, the list of Kenya's corruption scandals is so long that they cannot
be enumerated here. What is known is that in the last 10 years, Ksh 300 billion
has been stolen from public coffers through corruption, embezzlement, looting
and theft, a staggering figure which puts the rate of theft of taxpayers
money at Ksh 30 billion per year. In the meantime, Wananchi are being told
that the government is broke and that there is no money to spend on the collapsed
health care system, repair of roads, provision of clean drinking water, education,
purchase of school books and provision of other vital social services. As
the looting continues, Action Aid (an NGO) says in it's Country Strategy
Paper 1998-2001 that Kenya has sunk to the 17th poorest country in the world.
Our message to Kenyans is that there is no solution to corruption in our
country on the basis of capitalism. Anti-corruption advocates will continue
to call for the removal or resignation of corrupt politicians like Biwott
or Saitoti. But so long as the system is in place, new and corrupt politicians
will emerge to perpetuate the pillage. The principle problem in our country
is the capitalist system of government and it is for this reason that
KYMS is calling for the replacement of this exploitative system by one in
which workers and the oppressed will be able to take charge of state power
and control the country's resources.
Unless the means of producing wealth is in the hands of the producers of
wealth (workers) and until the state machine is in the hands of Wananchi,
it will be impossible for the toiling masses to have a say in how society
is run and how the national wealth is distributed. It will be equally impossible
for corruption to be eliminated in our country. KYMS will continue to weaken
the concept of reforming capitalism in Kenya by introducing revolutionary
ideas needed in the situation. This is because Kenya's capitalism is rotten
beyond reform!
Published by Kenya Socialist Democratic Alliance
(KSDA)
email: harakatips@hotmail.com
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