The Eating News For This Week

[MOON Ki]

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I have gone through past issues of the Daily Nation, The Standard, and The Star, and it appears that every new week in Kenya brings forth a new eating scandal.

For this week:

According to media reports, some officials have been forging documents, including bank instructions on fictitious consultancies, that has led to unexplained spending of Sh180.9 million between February and April. - See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke:8080/news/youth-fund-top-brass-sent-home-over-graft#sthash.52rYVaix.dpuf

http://www.the-star.co.ke:8080/news/youth-fund-top-brass-sent-home-over-graft

A Sh325 million inflated tender and some Sh25 million lost through unbanked revenue are only two of the shocking examples of looting contained in a 50-page report by the commission.

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000184535/eacc-dossier-reveals-how-honourable-mps-divert-billions-of-shillings-to-their-pockets

[Empedocles]

I remember reading Mwarang'ethe's articles in 2010 when he (they?) was vehemently against the new constitution.

An extract which seems to be coming true:

[MOON Ki]

This one too is good:

Records of more than 65 MPs who borrowed more than Sh2.6 billion from Parliament are missing. This means the Parliamentary Service Commission may be unable to recover loans.

- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/65-mps-borrow-sh26-billion-parliament-data-goes-missing#sthash.pf7wO8Wm.dpuf

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

This one too is good:

Records of more than 65 MPs who borrowed more than Sh2.6 billion from Parliament are missing. This means the Parliamentary Service Commission may be unable to recover loans.

- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/65-mps-borrow-sh26-billion-parliament-data-goes-missing#sthash.pf7wO8Wm.dpuf

There is a reason why the Parliament is a waste of time when it comes to keeping the government accountable.

[Georgesoros]

Wind
Parliament is a den of corrupt officials led by the speaker
Himself. What do you expect. How can one lead lawmakers without checking on them?
The amount of malfeasance that takes place in parliament will make NYS blush

[MOON Ki]

There is a reason why the Parliament is a waste of time when it comes to keeping the government accountable.

Still, to be fair to the MPs, none of them got votes on the basis of any ability to do anything.    Nor did integrity, character, etc. come into any part of the picture.    So why should they be other than what they have turned out to be.

Eventually---perhaps global warming might increase the rate of evolution---the Kenyan voters will someday look beyond "our man".    (Extreme pressure---some guy beating the crap out of them for years or just a bit of kienyeji African mayhem---has been shown to yield results, but only fleeting ones.)

[RV Pundit]

Really? There are many MP who came into office with impeachable records but once in parliament everything changes. Kenyans have been doing their job, sending  on average 70% of mps home, since 1963 and have tried all sort of characters, professors, professionals, private sectors, pastors, priest, outright crooks, conmen name them....

Clearly something is wrong...and it not our mps or kenyans fault...it would appear..it something more systemic...maybe it our endemic poverty levels.. sort of poor man has no morals.

Still, to be fair to the MPs, none of them got votes on the basis of any ability to do anything.    Nor did integrity, character, etc. come into any part of the picture.    So why should they be other than what they have turned out to be.

Eventually---perhaps global warming might increase the rate of evolution---the Kenyan voters will someday look beyond "our man".    (Extreme pressure---some guy beating the crap out of them for years or just a bit of kienyeji African mayhem---has been shown to yield results, but only fleeting ones.)

[Georgesoros]

Pundit
Can't say poverty brings immorality, rather morality is a result of poor leadership. As you said pastors, priests, imams, political leaders, all of them lost ground during the last generation and continues into this one.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

Pundit
Can't say poverty brings immorality, rather morality is a result of poor leadership. As you said pastors, priests, imams, political leaders, all of them lost ground during the last generation and continues into this one.

The biggest names, in the biggest scams, Goldenberg, Anglo-leasing, SGR, it's interesting to see how many of them are from backgrounds that one would consider poor.  I can't think of any that come from poverty.  I'd say the vice better correlates to impunity.

[RV Pundit]

But how do you fight impunity when the same vice corrupts the guys impunity fighting agencies. You expect a EACC investigator earning 100K to pursue 100M and not end up cutting the deal. If he doesn't, the next guy up cuts the deal, all the way until the top judges.

The same case with Mps, there is enough research to show kenyans have been ruthlessly sending MPS home, but the replacement are equally rotten; they've put in ex-diaspora folks who have lived in countries with strict laws, ethics and name it, but a few months in Nairobi, and they are part of the gang.

It systemic... The economy has to grow....people have to have more opportunities to lead ethical lives.... it like the blacks in American slums or inner cities...they only recourse remain crime and drugs.

Maybe a few smaller countries with a benelovent dictator can deal with corruption...but any large economy has to grow through this labor pains.

Let us celebrate when we see corruption reducing by 5% every year and economy growing by 5%; in few generations; we will get out of the this; It won't be easy. It won't be fast.

The biggest names, in the biggest scams, Goldenberg, Anglo-leasing, SGR, it's interesting to see how many of them are from backgrounds that one would consider poor.  I can't think of any that come from poverty.  I'd say the vice better correlates to impunity.

[Kim Jong-Un's Pajama Pants]

But how do you fight impunity when the same vice corrupts the guys impunity fighting agencies. You expect a EACC investigator earning 100K to pursue 100M and not end up cutting the deal. If he doesn't, the next guy up cuts the deal, all the way until the top judges.

The same case with Mps, there is enough research to show kenyans have been ruthlessly sending MPS home, but the replacement are equally rotten; they've put in ex-diaspora folks who have lived in countries with strict laws, ethics and name it, but a few months in Nairobi, and they are part of the gang.

It systemic... The economy has to grow....people have to have more opportunities to lead ethical lives.... it like the blacks in American slums or inner cities...they only recourse remain crime and drugs.

Maybe a few smaller countries with a benelovent dictator can deal with corruption...but any large economy has to grow through this labor pains.

Let us celebrate when we see corruption reducing by 5% every year and economy growing by 5%; in few generations; we will get out of the this; It won't be easy. It won't be fast.

The biggest names, in the biggest scams, Goldenberg, Anglo-leasing, SGR, it's interesting to see how many of them are from backgrounds that one would consider poor.  I can't think of any that come from poverty.  I'd say the vice better correlates to impunity.

Indeed it's true that thinking and behaving otherwise is just swimming against the tide.  Maybe Fatou Bensouda can be kind and show some interest in corruption as well.

[MOON Ki]

Really? There are many MP who came into office with impeachable records but once in parliament everything changes. Kenyans have been doing their job, sending  on average 70% of mps home, since 1963 and have tried all sort of characters, professors, professionals, private sectors, pastors, priest, outright crooks, conmen name them....

I think the best we can say is that people look good.   In reality, there are never any discussions of character, integrity, performance-potential, etc.   No sort of background check.  So we really can't be sure.    Contrast that with places where even a long-forgotten DUI matter or a bit on the side will be found and brought up.   

Sending them home and then replacing them with a similar lot doesn't do much good.

I also don't believe that a person suddenly wakes up on the day he starts being an MP or a "big" civil servant and decides that he will become a large-scale thief.    I suspect that there would be character flaws (and perhaps past inclinations) that would reveal an inclination to "deviancy".