WEEKLY REVIEWS

The revelations that only siblings of the ruling elite families in this ‘our’ Kenya are the sole beneficiaries of the latest presidential appointments had me swallowing involuntarily and I abandoned all hope of ever salvaging trust in this system. As it is alleged that corruption is made more painful and costly through the corridors of the justice, am awed with the fact that the crooks and cronies of one Grace Wakhungu have seemingly managed to raise 1B to save her skin. Led by the likes of a former vice president giving 135million(by the way, anyone with info how much this guy gives in church?). The figure had looked attainable from the first few days after that history-making verdict. Why should we be dismayed now, if not disappointed, that before the dust has settled, Grace and company have achieved the near impossible! She will soon breathe the sweet, fresh air of freedom, leaving jail with her head held high proudly. You can see that twee picture setting a bad precedent right there. Now, if liable fines in courts of law are promptly paid by looters, then I feel all this a sham! I ask, after the fines are availed, can we honestly say they are sanitized and holier than thou? Has the 314million NCPB maize scandal been attoned by the millions injected through the judiciary wing of government?  Hands up to anyone discerning the metamorphosis of impunity in our country! I daresay there is a chama for the likes of GW basically out there to ensure collection of handouts anytime their own lands in hot soup. For curiosity’s sake, when this Government is paid, isn’t it possible to get re-looted again? Who doesn’t know the Nigerian story of the re-looting of already recovered millions from it’s own coffers. The way this picture threatens to unfold, stinks so much of same script, different cast. I say we got the front seats to the new and improved Prison Break Season Covid Finale. Missing in action is the shovelling and dirty stuff.

Anyway, just across the gate, her co-accussed, the Sirisia MP John Waluke has managed to raise only a paltry 250 million. Focus on the 100 million coming from someone very high in government, it is alleged. You definitely know who it is! You remember the invisible face in the fiasco who albeit pocketed the most. Yes, that one! Kenyans too ‘managed’ to respond to the pleas of the MP’s wife Roselyn and contribute a humble sh.361,000. By all means an amount very fair, considering no one got invited to the bash when they made merry of the stash they had conned with her crooked husband of an MP. However, it was not before Kenyans renowned for their prowess in speaking their minds, had trolled her online with abuses and mockery. Who wouldn’t anyway? After gobbling up 40M with none but blood relatives, you then shamelessly turn to all and sundry for the helping hand, when the money is drained.

Well, if we are talking about money and draining in the same sentence, we can’t avoid the nieces of the President who have shown that the Covid-19 nightmare was godsent. How rhetoric that, while that mother in Kisauni, Mombasa was boiling pebbles for her three malnourushed offspring, starving, someone only 33years of age, just across the county borders, had scored a tender worth 84M. As if wherever they were born, they already didn’t have more than enough! Just like that, because of the right connections from blood lineage, these lasses confirmed to be carrying two of the priciest cats in town. The interesting bit though, don’t forget, is their modus operandi. From the registration of the company days before Covid-19 happened, to the signatures appended in procurement documents, everything reeked of either naivety or stupidity. Although my fingers are crossed its the former rather than the latter. There is absolutely no cunning in signing your name in goverment documents especially if there is a connection with that very goverment. An experienced hand in this our Kenya, the way we know it, especially with ties up there with the you-know-who, would hide behind proxies when doing business with government. That is obviously to prevent the drama and public relations circus that ensues when caught with hands in the cookie jar. I bet they have learnt the hard way and next time an alias would be forthcoming. Better yet, there doesn’t have to be one.  My take, surprise everyone, change, do an about-turn! Don’t continue the pillage ladies, what’s already in the barns can last generations! Again, you may ask Ankoo or Grandma for a lil piece of the pie, they wouldn’t risk leave you again to your reckless ways.

On this same beat about change, if there is one about-turn worth noting, it’s the one that the plane carrying Kenyan officials for the late Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa burial took. We still aren’t sure if it really was bad weather that forced them to do a hasty retreat as they claimed. Their would-have-been hosts seemed to  harbour different views which catapults this situation downhill further. It can no longer be swept under the carpet of the bad neighbor relationship between Kenya and Tanzania. There is more than meets the eye. This enterprenual mind of Kenyans always seeking new ventures then excelling in, am afraid, has rubbed very badly on neighbours. It has caused a ripple effect of suspicion and open hate. Maybe, mostly fueled by an inferiority complex that is supercharged by an inferior education system, shilling and outdated policies that were enshrined in their minds and way of life since them days. Even Covid-19, a plague that has plundered the whole world still wasn’t mighty enough to unite these neighbours. Their policies as pertains to the pandemic have been like night and day. Kenya choosing to acknowledge the presence of the virus with the whole world. Tanzania has however, under it’s very able president chosen to remain as if they live under a rock unbeknown to the rest of the world, and refute the existence of the disease within it’s borders. Their President has vehemently discarded any notions of Covid-19 and thrown caution to the air by ignoring all WHO set precaution guidelines. All this claiming that Providence had ensured his people were cured and remained immune to the disease. I can’t help thinking, this is a modern day Kinjekitile Ngwana. Didn’t she tell her people that the water she sprinkled on to them was holy water, and would prevent the white man’s bullets from penetrating their bodies. Shock on them then, shock on them now. Perhaps in the ultimate turn-around of events, the Tanzanian Health PS has reviewed their Covid-19 travel advisory. This move he claims is in a bid to maintain the countrys’ coronavirus free situation. Need I say more!

On matters near home, that we can’t afford to throw under the bus, i applaude the coastal lawmakers for standing steadfast, when push came to shove concerning the county’s revenue sharing formula. I have said it before, it is times like this that leaders worth their salt should stand up and get counted. It is high time the coastal people wake up and refuse to dance the accapella of anyone but themselves. He who feels it knows it. That is why they should expect no one but themselves to fight for their rights. With the first hurdle out of the way, the next step of gathering people under one umbrella should follow suit urgently. Just showing you can lobby in unison about the revenue sharing debacle is next to nothing, if you can’t execute the finishing meticulously. It is a belittling fact that most of the dwellers at the coast are squatters thus they may argue, how that new revenue sharing math will affect their everyday life. More needs to be done to follow and realise the dreams of fallen coastal leaders like the late Ronald Ngala, the late Sharriff Nassir, the late Karisa Maitha who wanted to consolidate the coast as one block. That way they will have the gained leverage in votes and thus a say in bargaining for the interests of her own people. If you check the chapters of history, they will attest that the coast has always nursed and toyed with the thought of seceding because it has been marginalised even before independence when it was a Protectorate of the Sultan. Presently, it still can’t grapple with the fact that the public beaches still haven’t been officially opened. Maasai Mara is up and running even causing a raucous in Eliud Kipchoge just to stimulate domestic tourism. That revenue sharing debate was a light-bulb moment to coastal leaders. Alas, it was crystal that it was every man for oneself. Adjustments and concessions for whatever reasons have to be made. Lest the coast and other marginalised areas get infuriated, frustrated and rebellious enough to hit the highway and leave Kenya to its own-Kenyans.