• Suspects were hired as individuals—not as agents of tribes and parties, with a licence to misbehave
• Packing a public office with people who share ethnic and political affiliations is a fertile ground for conspiracies.
Image: FILE
Copycat Pin Tails are mushrooming in the Rift Valley. They spew hate. They emit contempt. They ooze hyped bitterness to incite a tribal turf. Frogs don't cross roads by day unless their lives are in danger.
Pin Tail is excited, like a canine fighting its shadow. Is someone about to grab the steak from the claws of the barkers? Good morning Senator Kipchumba Murkomen, MP Oscar Sudi and Governor Stephen Sang! You have outsmarted Pin Tail.
You are carving a cantankerous image. You are raising your stock of psychotic sycophancy in the Uhuru Kenyatta succession. Murkomen, Sudi and Sang probably boast after these misadventures: "We know how to abuse him. We stung the President."
Pin Tail, the wasp, defied security, breached protocol and decorum. It invaded the palace; stung the prince, the blue-eyed scion, of the turf. Sang, Sudi and Murkomen you better read Robert Greene's The 48 Laws of Power to understand the Pin Tail metaphor:
Once upon a season, a wasp named Pin Tail was craving notoriety. One day he entered the king's palace and stung the little prince. The prince woke up with loud, desperate cries. The king and courtiers rushed in to see what had happened. The prince was yelling as the wasp stung him serially.
The courtiers tried to catch the wasp and each, in turn, was stung. News soon spread and the people flocked to the palace. Pin Tail boasted, "A name without fame is like fire without flame." Pin Tail had courted attention at any cost.
Murkomen, Sudi and Sang crave attention at any cost. Propaganda, hate, vitriol, spite, and contempt come easily to their unloosened tongues. They don't consider there may be thinking people in their audiences. They are rowing against the current of history. Does the fight against corruption target a community, as Murkomen, Sudi and Sang claim? Do they care about the funereal logic?
You are not defending the boss. You are isolating the Deputy President. The anti-corruption purge targets suspected thieves. The suspects have betrayed public trust. They are being called upon to account. The fear of accountability spawns serial lies while hiding behind tribe and politics.
When DCI Kinoti raided Kenya Power, Kenya Pipeline Company and the National Produce and Cereals Board, the crime-buster was investigating theft of public funds. The investigations followed a public outcry over corruption. The DCI did not go for tribes and allies of politicians in the corporations. The suspects were hired as individuals—not as agents of tribes and parties, with a licence to misbehave.
If, in certain cases, the suspects are largely from one or two tribes, that exposes another crime—the primordial parameters of hiring. Packing a public office with people who share ethnic and political affiliations is a fertile ground for conspiracies. These plots have spawned shameless plunder.
The DCI cannot go for a Pokomo or Kuria where the suspects are Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Luo or Kamba. It is, therefore, diversionary for 'Mor Komer', Sud, and Sang to claim the fight against corruption is an onslaught on a community. The fight to reclaim integrity in public office is moving to the counties.
Soon, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the DCI will raid counties where nepotism, patronage, loyalty, sycophancy and complicity in theft are the qualifications for getting and retaining jobs in government.
Take, for example, a county public office where a chief executive works with his wife, daughter, sister, nephews, sister-in-law, son, and cousins in strategic departments such as procurement, accounts, finance and audit. This fertilises the ground for conspiracies, collusion and complicity.
When Kinoti, EACC's Twalib Mbarak and Director of Public Prosecutions Nordin Haji arrest and prosecute this state thief, will the suspect claim his family is being targeted? Will he allege there is a plot to deny him a chance of running for governor in 2022?
Such a person can only be running for governor to protect family interests, and cover up the trail of theft. There is room for rebranding the Boss on the right side of history, only if the hecklers can see beyond their shadows.