KITU KIDOGO

Everyone is talking about corruption in Kenya. The newspapers are bursting with the latest revelations from the maize scandal -- which threatened the downfall of Agriculture Minister William Ruto but this wily politician from the Rift Valley appears to have survived for now. Before this, we had the Triton affair, whereby Kenya Pipeline Company officials were said to have sold oil illegally to the now defunct firm. Adding to the furore, journalist and author Michela Wrong's book "It's Our Turn To Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblower" has been serialized in local newspapers, shining fresh light on the Anglo-Leasing scandal over security contracts and the murky forces that drove John Githongo, Kenya's former anti-corruption commissioner, into exile in London.
The picture that emerges from all this is of a country unable to fulfil its true potential until there has been a sea-change in the way it is governed. Kenya is East Africa's strongest economy as it is, one can only imagine what it could be if public service truly became just that, rather than an opportunity to enrich oneself and one's immediate community. President Mwai Kibaki took over from Daniel Arap Moi in 2002 promising to rid the country of graft. It appears that whatever the intentions, the reality is that graft is back as a way of life after a brief period underground. And now everyone is talking about it too.
Quite apart from the ramifications for business, social stability and public morale, endemic corruption like this -- and Kenya is by no means alone in Africa or the world -- is also a dangerous political force. Corruption allows those in power to build warchests to remain in office, spurring others to emulate them to try to advance their own cause. If corruption is the oil that greases the political wheel, the system is doomed to deliver rulers incapable of breaking the cycle. Especially if the body politic is divided on tribal or ethnic lines that turn every issue into a "them-or-us" affair.
Kenya and other African countries have no monopoly on corruption -- the financial crisis sweeping the globe has shown that skulduggery in high places had become widespread, and stealing is stealing whether the thief is a sweaty customs officer on a remote border post in Africa or a millionaire hedge fund manager with an airy office overlooking New York's Central Park. But when twinned with ethnic divisions in countries where need is so great, it is especially destructive and dangerous. Clearly, African governments bear responsibility but so too do Western and other foreign companies that offer and deliver kickbacks, the donors who give without due diligence in terms of accountability for the funds disbursed and international organisations who turn a blind eye to graft when it suits their broader plan.
In Kenya,corruption is feeding a divisive system that slithers under every aspect of political life and burst above ground in the violence after the 2007 polls. Corruption allows politicians to buy votes and pay militias, spending their way to victory and prolonging the vicious cycle.
I was struck while reading about the Ruto affair, and the debate in parliament to censure him, by how often political parties were equated with communities, and by that I understood the tribal groups that back them. If all politics in Kenya boils down to whose turn it is to rule -- the Kikuyu, the Kalenjin, the Luo, the Luhya etc -- then it is hard to imagine ever getting a government for all Kenyans. Perhaps the recent conference held by Kibaki's coalition to discover the "Kenya We Want", should have been about the kind of Kenyans who can bring this about. Whatever the origins of the tribal rivalries -- and these have only been exacerbated by last year's violence -- Kenya will need to bring its people together with one vision to break the cycle.
Corruption can only be eradicated from the top down. And maybe to truly want to do that, you have to genuinely want to rule for all of Kenya. Perhaps I'm wrong, but right now it's hard to see that vision prevailing in 2012.
These are just my superficial thoughts but for a thought-provoking look at tribalism in Kenya, it's worth checking out this article:http://www.kenyaimagine.com/23-Fresh-Content/Social-Issues/Ethnicity-abounds-Kenyas-identity-crisis.html