Ping Pong: The Death of Accountability

 

 

Ping Pong or Whiff-Whaff is a game of back and forth played on a hard table divided by a net.

It’s also commonly known as Table Tennis.

The sport which began in Victorian England was played by the upper-class as an after-dinner in-door game.

In Ping Pong, a point is scored when a player fails to return the ball within the rules.

Unfortunately for Kenya, the only way we score the political elite is by how many times they have failed to return the ball of political accountability.

How much wealth they have amassed through corrupt and underhand dealings.

Just across the globe an Irish Minister and a Senator resigned a few days ago over a golf dinner that flouted Covid-19 regulations. 

But on our side of the planet, that would be a misnomer. We basically glorify thieves and worship plunderers given we elect them into office.

Kenya has been for a long time a ping pong game for the political elite on the hard surface that is a depressed economy!

 An economy depressed to a large extent due to massive looting, mismanagement and government largess.  

This game is played in-doors because the politico-elite have managed to capture the state and have its reins within their grip.

The thin net that splits the table of political divide is the veiled self-interest on either side.

These interests have always served as a basis for passing of legislation and horse trading as the public interest is relegated to the back-burner.

Indeed, the only way those elected into office can and should score points is by returning the serve to the electorate by way of improving living standards, good governance and accountable leadership.

But no, they won’t do that.

Instead they’ve decided to make this board that is Kenya their after-dinner indoor chessboard where they escape responsibility and point fingers at each other whenever the ball falls off the table!

I cannot begin to count the number of times doctors, nurses, teachers and other civil servants have had to take industrial action to compel government to accord them their inalienable rights.

Even now, doctors have gone on strike but the big players seem unfettered by the fact that Kenyans have been left helpless and hapless.

Governments it seems never learn because they are enormous bodies with extensive tentacles each doing its own thing and none able to account to the other.

The current drama about the Covid Millionaires is a case in point.

Any Kenyan can tell you with certainty that anytime there’s a crisis, it’s an opportunity for the vultures to jump in for a loot.

Vultures who do not care if people die or live so long as they get what they want.

Indeed, Kenya has become a shameless nation of glorified thieves.

This plague of pilferage is a bad seed that has now taken root in the lives of the Kenyan youth.

It’s no wonder young people are now involved in all manner of illegal means to make money.

The case of three young men who dug their way into a bank in Thika town in 2017 taking away Sh52 million, is a grim reminder that the population is quickly getting tired and desperate.

Survival is one of the greatest instincts in any human being when faced with a crisis.

This crisis of leadership and its Siamese twin of theft if not remedied can plunge Kenya into an economic crisis of unimaginable proportions.

The USAID and Global fund which supports Kenya against Aids, Malaria, Tuberculosis have given notice of their intention to withdraw funding to the tune of Sh400 billion in light of the Covid-19 scandal.

This is not a joke! When corruption bites it’s the innocent, weak and sickly who suffer!

A closer look at the number of reported cases of corruption and looting of government and donor moneys in the last 5 years alone is enough to send one into a comma!

The political elite have played Kenyans as a guitar. They have also learnt to tune us so that we can sing their song when and how it suits their agenda.

This is clearly demonstrated in the way they handle matters corruption. They hear and see no evil when their political allies are involved in the loot but instead point fingers at the other side.

To think that politicians are interested in the advancement of public good is a fallacy.

The only time the political class is ever united is when they conspire to loot from the people and add more money to their pockets.  

This can be seen in the number of times they’ve come together to increase their salaries with wild abandon even in the middle of a reeling economy. 

Therefore, in my carefully considered opinion, an election, referendum or even the BBI cannot cure this culture of looting, because not only has the forest remained the same but also the monkeys.

If that were the case, the constitution 2010 would have been the magical pill.

But no thief will dare go after another for fear of being exposed!

And so it seems that we have entrusted wolves as protectors of the sheep’s pen. We are doomed!

The night is too long and by the time we come back in the morning, the ravenous wolves will have hacked to death all the sheep!

This has been the slow but painful death of our country.

That year in and year out the situation keeps getting worse yet we continue to be duped and to believe that a new leadership will make a difference.

It’s almost 20 years since the removal of the KANU regime under the guise of multiparty democracy, zero-toleration to corruption and restoration of freedoms!

But can one tell the difference?

To say the truth, I think we have been barking up the wrong tree.

Kenya’s political elite have no solution in sight to get us out of this quagmire of corruption largely because they are the major players.

To expect a thief to report himself to a police station is an illusion that we must deal with once and for all.

Yes, politicians are going nowhere, but also they are not the solution to the problem.

We must look for other legal and constitutional means to rid Kenya of the menace of corruption.

This old song that cartels fight back is not true. It is simply a case of thieves covering each other’s back!

This case cannot rest! This diatribe will continue.

It will only get louder until the blood of the innocent sheep slaughtered at the ungodly midnight hour is avenged!

Until the cry of the widow is heard, until the orphan has a roof over his head, until the innocent is set free, until a Nation gets back on its feet!

Only then shall it rest.

 

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