What crimes politicians commit in thy name!

COMMENTARY
Story by CABRAL PINTO
Publication Date: 12/7/2006

IN HIS BOOK, Rogue Ambassador: An African Memoir, Smith Hempstone, who died recently, tells us that he contributed to the campaign of George Bush, Snr, for the US presidency in 1988 and requested that he be appointed ambassador to Kenya should Bush win. He got his job.

In some of the disclosures about the Anglo Leasing scandal, one Pereira is alleged to have paid presidential candidate Mwai Kibaki’s medical bills in London. Kamlesh Pattni gave the Jaramogi Odinga's Ford Kenya campaign Sh2 million according to Jaramogi’s own admission. Jaramogi died in 1994.

In the aftermath of Dr Wanjiru Kihoro’s death, it was disclosed, by her husband, that she was able to raise Sh16 million towards the Narc campaign in 2002.

There were people who helped Narc in other ways, besides raising funds. Scholars wrote blueprints. The international community also gave a hand. We have since heard allegations of foreign funds being channelled to Narc’s campaigns through friendly NGOs. Nobody knows how much the politicians raised in their many trips abroad, an exercise that is now being repeated.

WHAT WERE THESE INDIVIDUALS and organisations lobbying for? Was it just a political commitment that made them do whatever it took to help the party come to power? Were they lobbying for general, specific or personal interests?

No study has addressed these critical questions. We must learn our lessons and change.

Kenyans must be reminded of these stories because the struggle for political power in 2007 is furiously with us. Is this not the time to find out who are the real movers and shakers of this struggle? Are the monitors of free and fair elections ready to do their work and ensure the polls are not rigged in favour of anonymous stakeholders?

Are the human rights and social justice organisations that campaign against corruption ready to do their work and show which corrupt networks are at work to capture, enslave and own willing politicians?

Are our think-tanks at university, NGOs and consulting firms ready to tell us what the think-tanks of the status quo are really thinking? How can we talk about alternative leadership if this critical work is not being done?

When will we become serious and show Kenyans clearly and convincingly that the two political parties now vying for office, namely, Narc-Kenya and ODM-Kenya, are not simply errand girls and boys of vested interests, both national and international?

The truth is that the corrupt networks are already investing in the political fortunes of the prospective presidential candidates. The rich Kenyan grapevine tells of who is funding who and whose helicopters are at the beck and call of which politicians.

Evidence abounds on what the prospective presidential candidates are promising key stakeholders. Rumour has it that one has already promised his financier a speedy enactment of the Suppression of Terrorism Bill!

With proper inquiry, investigative journalism, and monitoring the activities of the prospective candidates, we can make the real evidence available to Kenyans before the 2007 elections.

Those Kenyans who constantly say that electoral politics is dirty are themselves guilty of intellectual laziness. We can make Kenya’s politics clean. We can keep dirty politicians and their backers out of Kenya’s politics. It is only when we can do so that we can talk of alternative leadership.

Poor Wanjiku! How many crimes are committed in thy name!

Nobody becomes president in Kenya without responding to the vested interests of political power-brokers inside and outside the country. When we talk of the status quo, that is precisely what and who we mean: Powerful political brokers. We do not seem to pay attention to these people at all.

Our media is not interested in taking up investigative issues. Political campaigns become campaigns that have nothing to do with the fundamental issues facing the country. The cult of personality is prevalent and you see the key players in the front pages each day of the campaign period. Before we know it, there is a new occupant at State House, and nobody cares how she or he got there.

It is time Kenyans thought seriously about what kind of leaders they need, and what values the leaders stand for. Let Kenyans seriously interrogate the political manifestos that politicians churn out during campaigns. Let us monitor and document who supports these politicians and for what reasons.

Mr Pinto is a Kenyan political scientist.