The rekindled war on corruption led by Haji and Kinoti seems to have hit turbulence in recent days, much to the disappointment of the many devotees of the two.
However, before we assign undue blame to what makes graft such a malignant and persistent abomination in our society, let us give a thought to corruption’s nebulous anatomy.
Corruption is a hydra-headed monster. It’s as confounding and elusive. It thrives in the darkest of echelons and lodges in the most covert fringes of society’s collective conscience. That makes it difficult to unpack, let alone legislate. It is, therefore, important to rethink how we to tackle the scourge effectively.
It is not enough to swoop on persons purported to be involved in corrupt dealings with bravado and drama. Neither does it inspire public confidence to weaponise the war on corruption. Corruption is a disgraceful engagement.
It thrives in a shadowy ecosystem ruled by ‘unseen’ beneficiaries who frustrate efforts to dismantle it.
Waging war on corruption should, therefore, not be left to trial-and-error adventures. Confronting it must first seek to comprehend the workings and intricacies of the underworld, where it thrives. Without such entrenched awareness, one is likely to encounter a perplexing quagmire.
A credible onslaught on corrupt should, therefore, endeavour to forge a tight counter-strategy that can ably confront established cartels headfirst.
Now, this is no walk in the park. First, there’s a huge amount of money and many influential personalities involved. Secondly, it is important to acknowledge that all old habits, corruption included, die hard.
Going forward, it may be important to legislate a revolutionary approach specifically aimed at subduing the spirit of corruption in our midst once and for all. That approach should be pragmatic.
What readily comes to mind is adopting lobbying as the means through which to smoke out the ethereal networks from the trenches. Here, tack is everything. So, who is a lobbyist?
Lobbyists are, essentially, intercessors who assert their influence on political and other social outfits that wield transformative clout on behalf of individuals or organisations. They generally seek to shape opinion in favour of the desired outcomes of those who engage them.
Opinion is divided on whether lobbyists are ethical interlocutors or glorified villains masquerading as professionals. In my opinion, the fact that their trade is formal elevates them way above the spectral ‘tenderpreneurs’ and cruel hooded operatives who rule the graft underworld that we have been unable to dismantle in Kenya so far.
At least lobbyists are not phantoms; they have a face. According to Statista — a German-based online statistics portal with upwards of a million data sets on more that 80,000 topics and boasting 22,000-plus sources — the United States had, as at last year, close to 12,000 active lobbies.
The sectors that mostly engage lobbyists in the US include pharmaceuticals-cum-health product manufacturers, insurance industry, manufacturers of electric utilities and electronics and business associations.
Others are the oil and gas sector, manufacturing and distribution, education, as well as hospitals and nursing homes.
From the forgoing, lobbying services a wide array of industries, which pretty much covers the breadth of sectors that are notorious dungeons of graft in Kenya. Why, then, shouldn’t we take a leaf from the US model to come up with legislation that can effectively deal a body blow to corruption in Kenya? And how do we go about it?
Let us start with the ‘how’. It’s obvious that graft cartels are deeply entrenched in our society. That, therefore, means uprooting their networks overnight is a tall order. We also know that the injury caused to our public coffers by corruption cartels is as unfathomable as it is bad for our bottom line as an economy.
Corruption is an all-out loss nightmare. Therefore, enticing the underworld that drives graft to come to the open would be a decent and triumphal undertaking, whichever way one looks at it.
And why? Because we will spend way less — and even earn in taxes — in funding anti-corruption activities and eventually unveil the ghosts we have been dealing with.
My take is that the sooner we engage lobbyists formally, through parliamentary legislation, the merrier for our otherwise limp attempts at uprooting corruption.
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