Petty thieves in, big ones free
Corruption will continue to evolve, making it easy and profitable to engage in.
A sting operation in which anti-corruption agents arrested the Officer Commanding Station (OCS) for Ruai Police Station for, among other alleged offences, demanding a Sh5,000 bribe from each reveller rounded up at night in a club in Utawala, Nairobi, to release them made breaking news in several news outlets.
The same week had Auditor-General Margaret Nyakang’o spilling the beans on high-tech thievery at the National Treasury. She promptly coined the now-famous moniker for it, “budgeted corruption”.
The jury is still out on why the same EACC that swooped on the OCS has delayed to seal off The Treasury Building and declare it a scene of crime.
It is still a matter of conjecture whether any action will be taken in the near future in the newest crime haven but one thing is for sure: The taxpayer is the ultimate loser. No wonder, the answer Dr Nyakang’o sought, on why her salary was budgeted for since 2019 at thrice what she earns was not forthcoming.
And this as the ‘hustler’ government moves to squeeze the last coin from struggling Kenyans through a heavy taxation regime.
There is no honour among thieves and, unless the loopholes at the Treasury through which money haemorrages are sealed, corruption will continue to evolve, making it easy and profitable to engage in.
Addressing widespread corruption in his country, Chinua Achebe, in his 1983 seminal book The Trouble with Nigeria, wrote that “my honest and frank opinion is that anybody who can say that corruption levels in Nigeria is not alarming is either a fool, a crook or else does not live in this country”. Sadly, this has come to define our beloved country, Kenya.
- Mr Kamau is an author and former human resource practitioner. [email protected].
