We read about corruption cases everyday. In Kenya, corruption is no more occasional.
It is pervasive. But why has it become second nature in Kenya, where it is regarded as a crime and publicly condemned?
First corruption is pervasive in Kenya because leaders who should end it are morally crippled and have lost all the capacity to fight and protect people and government from it.
Second, once crippled, leaders no longer take responsibility for their failure to end corruption by resigning, to give other Kenyans a chance to fight and end graft, mainly because society lacks the culture of leaders resigning when they fail.
Third, because of having corrupt leaders, one can confidently say, our leaders have no will, reason and intention to end corruption
because they are or have been beneficiaries as a means of self-enrichment. When leaders are beneficiaries of corruption, they cannot be expected to fight or end it.
Fourth, once corruption has made some people rich, as beneficiaries, they cannot be called upon to fight corruption because in their heart, they will have a soft spot for it. Anyone with a whiff of corruption should not be tolerated, pardoned, employed or asked to investigate and fight corruption because that would be asking him to commit suicide. The only people who should be mobilised to fight corruption are its victims though many will lack the power to fight and eradicate it.
Five, even if men and women of integrity need not be victims of corruption, though every Kenyan will ultimately be its victim, moral individuals should be called upon to fight graft because it is their natural enemy.
Six, corruption spreads fast in Kenya because some who are called upon to fight it are not men and women of integrity. A vehicle cannot move without fuel and equally, one who fights corruption cannot do so without moral values.
Seven, corruption is also growing fast in Kenya because, so far, even as we declare our intention to fight it, we have created a society that we can equate with a jungle, where the strong eat the weak, meat eaters fatten on grass eaters and the rich maul the poor. One cannot embrace a jungle society and at the same time avoid corruption.
Eight, Kenyans have also imbibed negative ethnicity that in turn convinces them that they have a right to be corrupt and steal where they work. As members of their communities, many Kenyans believe it is their turn to eat and steal from government ministries and corporations they are in charge of.
Nine, Kenyans mistakenly believe it is their right and that of their communities to be corrupt. Stemming from this belief that they are entitled to steal, many Kenyans believe it is unfair and discriminatory for government to arrest and prosecute them for corruption.
Ten, that some people look surprised when they are arrested and prosecuted suggest belief that they cannot have been employed in their big ministries and corporation but to plunder and steal from them. When political allies share government ministries and parastatals it is in order to loot and pillage them for individual and ethnic wealth.
Finally, Kenya is going through state capture by corruption of some government officials and private sector. And like in South Africa, unless this corruption is fought back, its capture of state institutions and corporations will not be stopped, undone and reversed.