In the typical culture of Kenyan public officers who, after tasting the lucre of public office, will not leave even if the heavens fall, our gluttonous governors are not ready to leave office, no matter what. As Kenyans are up in arms lamenting against their unaccounted for billions, the voracious governors are busily calling for press conferences in bid to appease Kenyans and expound to them why they need more money. They are beating up on helpless Kenyans to score political points.
Fellow Kenyans, since our policy cognoscenti can’t seem to draw the obvious conclusions, it is time for us to stop letting these ingrates play us for suckers, speed up our exit, and stop wasting our lives and billions. They are calling for press conferences to explain to us why we must give them more money. They are not telling us how our money has been lost through fake the projects they midwifed.
Apparently seeing the writing on the wall, the governors are fighting to get more money; nothing more matters to them. They have a very funny reason to want more money: the money will go to help the common Mwananchi at Mashinani. Imagine that lie!
Someone should tell the likes of Governor Ongwae and company that since there are more questions about their motive, it would have been better for them to resign. This would have paved way for an unfettered investigation into the actions, and inactions, of all those that played a role in the misappropriations.
But need we blame the likes of governor Ongwae for their latest insult on collective responsibility? As I have always said, our governors are mere opportunists thrown upon the system not on account of their integrity and competence, or what they can bring to the table, but at the instance of political parties. Traditionally, if you become a disloyal apparatchik in you political party, you stand a chance to be kicked out.
Contrary to what Kenyans would love to see of their nation, public officers like our governors do not see governance as a serious endeavor whose primary goal is to uplift society. To their ilk, Kenya is where anything goes, a loose system they can shake down to accumulate unearned billions. That’s how they like it.
Fortunately for them, in a government led by President Uhuru Kenyatta where, according to him ‘corruption is overblown in Kenya’, it is only natural that governors will exploit the weakness in our system to sit tight in office, even if doing so will send many Kenyans to an early grave. That is why they have the audacity to ask for more money.
When singing Pesa Mashinani, our governor’s tones do not even suggest they are remorseful a bit. Even their ‘taking of the responsibility since the buck stops on their tables’ is a disqualified apology – even after irregularities unearthed about the contractors they single-handedly hired.
Our governors must be told that Kenyans are not asking for too much from them except the truth. Before they ask for more money, they must explain in detail why most of them never advertise the jobs and tenders in their counties, a simple step in public procurement. They must explain to the satisfaction of Kenyans why they serendipitously seek services of firms that do not have the know-how and experience to handle jobs.
Before asking for too much, governors like Ongwae must come clean on how much unearned money he has accrued in one way or another since his inception as Kisii President – as simple as that. They must genuinely atone for their sins – and be seen to be doing that, and desist from further attempts to trade blames before cameras.
I am sure that even before the governors finish giving their true testimonies, in a serious country where rules are rules, they would be cooling their heels in Kamiti Maximum Security. And is such climes, they would long have written their wills – excluding their share of looted county funds – because they would be spending a long time there.
kenya-today.com
