Hail the man who knows not grammatical philandering, talks not with a loose tongue, sticks to the Queen’s pronunciation pattern with gusto just like his passion for Karate. Patrick Lumumba is the man.
He heads the rejuvenated Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission and putting into positive consideration what the commission has been doing of late, then PLO as he’s popularly known, deserves a swift hat off salute.
However before the hat leaves the head, his lieutenants are proving to be a big letdown in this mission. They are conducting themselves in a manner likely to portend a serious stumbling block towards success of the campaigns. They are being overzealous and naive in the handling of this noble course.
Corruption is a silent vile which attacks both during the day and ups the tempo when the sun sets. It camouflages into the system without necessarily raising eye brows but when it eats into it, the system rots down amazingly. It has eaten into many government institutions and fell some within the shortest period.
Such a crime, engraved deep in our society, ingrained knowingly or unknowingly in every soul, enjoyed by the poor with the same voracity as a local tycoon cannot be fought the way Lumumba’s men seem to do. Any war has, is and will never be beamed live on television. Doing that not only give ‘enemies’ a chance to arm themselves but better still escape when KACC wrath is placed upon them.
The public likes to see such, the media is terribly excited to do such exclusives but the courts might not be amused at all by such.
The media are often known to exaggerate. Or play blackmail on behalf of someone else. And when such ego-slashing and respect-less endeavours arise they might ferociously get involved with a hidden intention to deliver a judgment favourable to their ‘guiders’ or ‘senders’.
So when Lumumba invites the press to pluck out suspected corrupt individuals from their dungeons, he not only pass a guilty verdict on the individuals but more so tells the public that the arrested Kenyans deserve such demeaning treatment.
The media is a platform for everyone to play. It’s not like the courts where there are several gates one had to pass through before a verdict is given. While the media is basically about (it’s not necessarily conventional) ‘copying’ and ‘pasting’ events as they happened-often include soft final judgment on them- the courts on the other hand prefer detailed examination of events, evidences and all other factors which might play into it directly or indirectly. Such analytical differences are what result in libel or slander suits in courts which most complainants win at miserable high rates for the media.
That aside and when such corruption cases, already blown out of proportion by the media, are presented in court, a defendant can refuse to take a plea claiming that the expected judgment could be affected in one way or another by what’s already propagated by the press.
That’s how bad it could be and corrupt individuals could easily get their freedom without having to face the charges.
Bribery, an understudy of corruption is heavily seated within our culture and practised without bother. It’s common too.
To fight this vile, however wafer-thin it is, present in the very last kiosk in the village and snakes its way to the highest office, demands insurmountable assertiveness, unparallel investigations and for goodness sake less of the media cameras. It would help, I believe.
Just by the way...
*Some of my readers (I appreciate you all) appeared to have misunderstood my previous blog, “Raila Lost Kalenjin Votes Looong Time Ago”, as expressions of tribal sentiments meant to dissociate rather than bring together Kenyans. I had no intention of doing this and I apologise if it appeared so. The blog was a factual capture of what’s happening down there, in the minutest of the villages to the most informed of the Kalenjins.
*“The minister does not procure, the minster does not sign cheques, the minister does not chair committees, the minister does not deal with budgets,” Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula said in parliament in connection with the scandal in his ministry. Excuse us minister what does he do then? Does he only slouch in his desk, swallow imondo and ingokho when things are going astray like you seem to suggest? Good you realised you were taking us for a serious ride.
On a serious note:
For the past nine months I met and have lived with new people who have been exciting, wonderful, super-lively, handsome, gorgeous, beautiful, and amazing. It will be an unforgivable sin not to mention their names: Peter, Alawi, Saudah, Angira, Saumu, Qorro, Imaka, Mutambo, Felista, Claud, Abimanyi, Flavia, Lilian, Florence N, Dann, Wesonga N, Rogers, and Sylvester Ernest. Guys, I have loved staying with you. Guys, may you enjoy the journalism you have been introduced to.
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