Media shall not be silent on graft
Some members of the Council of Governors during a press conference.
What you need to know:
- I was deeply ashamed when, a few days later, a delegation of the top officials of a company in the media business paid a courtesy call on the CoG, possibly to offer profuse expressions of their deepest respect and affection for governors.
Even the watchdog has joined the hyenas in the beeline for carrion, their greedy jaws forming the backdrop and their demonic laughter the soundtrack.
In the hierarchy of political sins, impunity must rank up there with greed.
The announcement by the Council of Governors of an illegal advertising blockade against Nation Media Group after the Daily Nation reported that a group of governors was under investigation for corruption by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission reflects a distorted perception of public property, a pervasive sense of entitlement and impunity.
The council was self-righteous enough to announce the blockade quite openly, unafraid of a public backlash. The governors’ beef was that we were “soiling” their reputation by reporting that some of them were being investigated for involvement in the theft of public funds.
To me, Council of Governors chairman Wycliffe Oparanya appears like a sensible informed fellow with at least a passable knowledge of the theory of democracy and the role of the media as a watchdog of the public interest. I was possibly wrong.
I was deeply ashamed when, a few days later, a delegation of the top officials of a company in the media business paid a courtesy call on the CoG, possibly to offer profuse expressions of their deepest respect and affection for governors. Values have exited through the window, it seems. Even the watchdog has joined the hyenas in the beeline for carrion, their greedy jaws forming the backdrop and their demonic laughter the soundtrack.
I never thought I’d live to see the day.
‘Good coverage’
This attitude that advertising is granted in exchange for “good coverage” is not new and is, of course, practised viciously by the Jubilee government: We are not supposed to say anything “bad” about anyone if we want to pay salaries. As a result, the share of government has been falling drastically and soon government will be irrelevant in media economics in Kenya, thank God, and that can’t happen too soon.
It is the same attitude some fantastic people with whom I am involved in another organisation. It is a simple, linear process. A group of Kenyans has entrusted another group of Kenyans with their property; this second group is supposed to collect the property on behalf of the first group and hand it over to that group and be paid a salary for it. It is just like the way your employer gives your bank your salary to put in your account.
What if the second group collected the property, and instead, abused the trust of the first group and misused that property? I strongly believe that if we can’t execute those simple transactions of trust, then our society, our economy and civilisation in general can’t stand.
Devolved power
A friend of mine once told me the story of a businessman who was so crooked that he was open about, even proud of, his fraudulent record. My friend told me how he had given that businessman a large sum of money to procure certain services on his behalf. The businessman, of course “ate” the money and ran circles around him until, finally, out of an excess of pity, he sat my friend down.
“Young man,” he told him, compassion in his voice, “Unfortunately, I have eaten your money with women.”
I think that is where we are with the governors and some elements in the national government. Haven’t you heard stories about how all the procurement in your county is done by the governor’s wife? Or how your county “bought” ventilators which were already installed in hospitals? Anecdotally at least, we all have a sense that we devolved power, resources and a lot of corruption to the counties. The same governors with the brutality to give up and order patients to be turned away from hospitals in the middle of a pandemic. And we, the taxpayers, are not supposed to “soil” anyone’s name.
At the national government, you have heard the reference in passing by the son of a senior politician, of private jets and slay queens. We have all heard stories of ageing men living the playboy lifestyle, flying up and down the coast in private jets full of slay queens. They have no professions, no jobs, no trades and no businesses other than fleecing the taxpayer. So, for example, they cut deals to steal money for medicines and that money is spent in truckloads to prop up their ebbing manly pride. And nobody will ask a simple question: Where does this money you blow on women and private jets come from?
I take my hat off to Director of Public Prosecution Noordin Haji — as well as the police and other investigative agencies he is working with — for having the courage to demand that governors be held to account for the wanton misuse of public resources. If newspapers are threatened with ruin for merely reporting investigation, you can imagine the pressure the DPP and his staff, and EACC and DCI, must be receiving by those who believe that they wear an iron cloak of impunity.
I have no wish to lecture anyone but, for us to exist at all as working entity, we can’t have impunity.
