This is a must read. The rot is not just in the individuals but in the systems and in patronage politics. And this is going on in a government that’s under much more scrutiny and in an environment where the Githongo dossier can circulate freely. Just think, the full Goldenberg storo has STILL yet to be unleashed. And that was just ONE of the shady deals in the Moi era. The national security deals alone under the ‘baks were worth $US1bn…kweli there’s money in Kenya, just in the wrong pockets.
We need to find a new way to fund campaigns and a way to change the culture where politicians are expected to be ATMs among many other things…otherwise those running in 2007 will be up to the same shenanigans.
Click here or here to get to the full Githongo report. Thanks to the folks who hooked me up…mnajijua. If any other readers hav any other relevant info. that will further the interests of democracy and accountability, please sambaza.
Oh, and according to the grapevine Alfred Getonga has quietly been fired.
EDIT: Hehehe… “Although the judge found he had raised a prima facie case that his rights would be being violated, he said the court’s role was to consider the weight of an individual’s rights and that of public interest. “My inclination is to uphold public interest and any shortcomings can be taken up by the applicant when they happen. I, therefore, disallow the application and I decline to make any conservatory order.” Kula hiyo. I think the whole Cabinet should be made to reveal their sources of wealth.
There is something in my own mind and conscience that ails me… the splinter in my own eye, so to speak, not the 4×4 in my neighbour’s. It is how the knowledge, perception and subseqent assumption of omnipresent corruption shapes our view of the next. Makes us meaner, pettier. And maybe gossipier (not that Kenyans would need any lessons in that).
So I looked into myself… it was a *tea* thing. There is a young Kenyan lad in the USA. She had studied at a very renowned school, had gotten her degree, and had apparently decided not just to live off her parents’ (presumably sizeable) wealth until she be married to another appropriately sociable swain from the same stable (oh, leave me alone with social stratification in post-colonial Kenya – it’s Jane-Austen-esque). That young woman decided to found her own company, as she wrote with some venture capital from her mother (who own some tea land), and to start business life. She now sells Kenyan teas in the USA, and apparently is moderately successful. Good story, isn’t it?
And yet… and yet I find myself suspicious and inquisitive. “Where did she get the money from? And wheece the expensive studies in one of the USA’s top schools? Ah, so she has just been born with a golden spoon in her mouth – these daughters of good society! Probably her father the politician just paved (nay, blazed) her trail all along, and funded the company with the money he stole from the wananchi.”
And I ask myself: why is it that the assumption of evil, and the almost natural predisposition of corruption, has made us all so suspicious, that we are no longer disposed to meet fresh spirit and entrepreneurial endeavour with an open mind?
Maybe I did this young woman wrong (I hope I did); maybe I was right, and it was just a case of the large old boar providing for his piglets, while the rest of the forest animals can go vainly looking for the stolen acorns on the now barren soil (I hope not). In any case, my own example shows how corruption influences even those negatively, who did not themselves partake in it.
Osas, contrite
The great Houdini had nothing on this administration. At last check, I lost count of the rabbits. Lo, you guessed it; Goldenberg is back. Emilio’s Amnesia suddenly vamoosed.
Thanks for the explosive PDF link.
Forget 2007,
Is there a procedure that allows for a vote of no confidence in the govt, which would then demand an election? As we follow Canada down this primrose path . . .
Thanks for the info!
Progress, good progress!
Good reading Pundit! I just read a another copy of the Githongo report online. Howz life back in Nairobi? Is it worth moving back for someone who’s been in Canada for 5 years and has a stable job? All the best.
Some sort of Anglo-leasing resource site:
http://www.nairobist.com/angloleasingkenya/githongo_1.htm
thanks, pundit. riveting reading! thank god for the internets. as a *cough* older kenyan i can remember days when G of K could easily control damning info. then came the fax and now the interwebs. thanks for keeping us informed.
Yes! Yes! This is what we need.
This is the hyperlink a hitherto confidential transcript from the last cabinet meeting. Apparently, it has now leaked, due to internal strife and power struggles. ;D
A must-read for every politically conscious Kenyan (and even more for the others).
Enjoy:
http://www.thinkersroom.com/blog/2006/02/cabinet-tales-iv-lunch-time/#more-192
how about tax evasion charges against this individuals – im sure they didnt pay taxes on those ill gotten gains – how come nobody in the press is mentioning this as an avenue of prosecution
I’ll immediately grab your rss feed as I can’t find your e-mail subscription link or e-newsletter service. Do you’ve any? Kindly let me know in order that I could subscribe. Thanks.
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