{UAH} Allan/Edmund/Pojim/WBK: GAITHO: To win this war on corruption, we must conquer enemy within - Daily Nation
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GAITHO: To win this war on corruption, we must conquer enemy within
I can just picture President Uhuru Kenyatta erupting into a mighty rage over the latest scandals to hit his administration, and this one rather too close to home.
He will be directing his anger and venom at the hated media, the political opposition, civil society, and all the other groupings he always imagines are involved in grand conspiracies to undermine his government.
He will be getting into the state of paranoia where he thinks everyone is out to get him and the instinct is to lash out wildly and blindly.
So he lets loose his dogs of war. The problem is that the hired guns in his service are as clueless as can be.
Most of them have absolutely no training and skills in the simple arts of effective communications and public relations.
They react, once unleashed, just the way the illiterate rabid hounds of the Moi era used to do in the mistaken belief that they were defending the regime.
Their base instinct is to strike out at every imaginary enemy with insults and threats rather than first analyse the problem and think through cogent responses.
This is what is happening with the Ministry of Health scandal.
Since the Business Daily broke the story of what could be monumental theft at the critical ministry — with suspect payments directly benefiting members of the "Royal" family — State House has thrown all logic and reason out of the window in mounting a political defence rather than answering the questions.
President Kenyatta has kept his silence while the formal arms of government, including the official State House spokesman and director of the Presidential Strategic Communications Unit, Mr Manoah Esipisu, and the man on the spot, Health Cabinet Secretary Cleopa Mailu, have been very judicious in their responses.
The basic official reaction is that it is premature to talk of any money lost as the figures being bandied around were from an incomplete audit and answers were still being awaited.
The Cabinet secretary has pledged to see through the internal audit he himself commissioned and to further bring in an independent external auditor.
The matter has even escalated into a graft probe, with officers from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission moving into the ministry headquarters, Afya House, that rightfully deserves the moniker, Mafia House. Or maybe Mafya House.
Parallel to the cogent, reasonable response, however, the President has unleashed a noisy public campaign of denials, finger-pointing, and counter-accusations that is doing more harm than good.
Politicians have been sent out on the stumpings to defend the President and point fingers elsewhere.
Paid propagandists and hecklers have gone into over-drive on social media and elsewhere with their usual noises that generate more heat than light.
The net effect is that what are audit queries are now being answered from the political propaganda platform.
Fellows who have no capacity to properly respond to the queries on behalf of the presidency, the Ministry of Health, the Treasury, or any other public institutions have been detailed to do just that.
That kind of noise can only serve to lend credence to suspicion that the government wants to politicise the matter as a way of avoiding giving answers to the real questions at hand.
President Kenyatta ought to be advised that this is not about fighting the media or opposition leaders, but about reassuring Kenyans that he is not presiding over the return of grand corruption.
This new revelations, coming in the wake of that State House parley where the President on live TV indicated surrender in the war against corruption, only add to the sense of hopelessness and despair.
Kenyans are hurting. They see corruption laying their country waste and a president who either does not care or is simply not up to the job.
The foot soldiers who have been despatched to fight imaginary enemies should be recalled because the enemy is right at home.
We cannot fight graft by denying its existence. The fight should start by conquering the enemies within who might be taking advantage of privileged positions to enrich themselves while impoverishing the country.
Meanwhile, I sense a desperation in government over the Health scandal that is truly worrying.
It is at a time like this that major catastrophes are engineered to divert attention.
gaithomail@gmail.com. @MachariaGaitho
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