Only Inclusive Reports Will Help
Daily Nation Friday, September 07, 2007 Page 11 Commentary
COMMENTARY Story by OKIYA OMTATA OKOITI
REPORTS THAT PRESIDENT Kibaki has since 2004 not acted on a Government report that some Sh130 billion was stolen from Kenyans should not make us react as though his Government has done something out of character. Nor should they simply be a confirmation of Mr John Githongo’s accusations that President Kibaki’s failure to tackle corruption is intentional.
The reports should invite us to ask critical questions: What ails Kenya? Have we diagnosed the malady and identified a cure for it, or are we fighting opportunistic infections on a polity whose immune system is dead? What lessons have we learnt when regime changes mean replacing one form of domination with another, from colonialists to Kenyatta to Moi to Kibaki? Why is it that since independence our united change efforts abort due to tribalism?
The correct diagnosis is that Kenya is a criminal state where an amoral political class is protected by an intricate superstructure, where power and greed happily legitimise each other with impunity, because there are no clear structures entitling all Kenyans to share in State power and wealth.
A criminal state is one whose institutions have been taken captive by ravenous trough-feeders who have no time for the common good. They deride the virtues for which leaders elsewhere are praised because their selfish interests are only served when they act against the common good. It is pointless to gnash our teeth, crushed by the scale, density, and sheer volume of the alleged massive theft. We achieve nothing saying that justice will not be served until our own versions of Mobutu Sese Seko are made to account for their crimes in our judicial system.
The cure lies in dismantling the unprincipled scratch-my-back I-scratch- yours logic of our politics. Many politically connected criminals remain free and influential today because moral imperatives have no place in our politics.
EVEN THE ‘‘EXPANDED democratic space’’ means we can scream about our problems but expect no solutions. It’s not the ideal where oppressions are addressed and a culture of justice created so people can be authentic and whole. When elections such as the charged 2002 ones that had very clear reform and anti-corruption agenda result in a radical regime change but fail to radically change the system, what guarantee is there that the forthcoming ones will?
A casual interrogation of the groupings vying for power shows that none can pass the basic integrity test that our common good requires. None can be the foundation of our democratic future. Even if they campaign in eloquent poetry, their past says they will govern through broken prose.
A democratic constitution is the immune system our polity lacks. Without democratic reforms, nothing will defeat the wicked charade that passes for national political discourse. Our protests will remain bogged down, since the conventional venues for political engagement will remain joined at the hip to the system, making them useless as vehicles of self-determination. At best, we will stack travesty upon travesty, working tirelessly to elect mediocre people or to win concessions that don’t threaten the status quo.
That is why I pray that the People’s Constitution Conference (PCC), a civil society-led initiative that brought delegates from all corners and walks of life to the Kenyatta International Conference Centre under the dictum Wakenya Wajitawale! (Power to the People!), succeeds to kick-start an independent reform process.
Mr Okoiti is a human rights activist