Incompetence, Greed, and Corruption in Kenya

According to the Star, over 50,000 people applied for 500 assistant court clerk jobs advertised by JSC. This is a staggering number, given the available positions but is also a testament to the chronic and unacceptable levels of unemployment in the country.

However, I have faith and confidence the new government will finally address the problem of chronic unemployment because it must. I will publish a column soon after the swearing-in of the new government God willing to (a) name names of those who are responsible for this problem by their standing in the way of economic progress because of their selfish, greedy, and moronic ways and (b) rally others to make sure that is not the case with the new administration.

I know it is common to blame the “government” for this or that but that government is comprised of people and not all of them are responsible for the failures. In fact, many try their best but are often frustrated by the real culprits who are either incompetent, greedy, or corrupt, and believe it or not, not all of them are–or at least not to the same level as many are just outrageously so.

These are the ones you hear working with “cartels” who control them but reality is some are worse than the cartels themselves. The new government must be different for the good of the country and, a big part of that will be not getting rid of the cartels for that is a pippedream but to rid it of these backward characters who stand in the way and block investments that can have real and positive impact on the economy and therefore the welfare of those suffering or struggling and that is nearly everyone.

For example, I will reveal how somone stood in the way of a certain investor in the technology field was prepared to invest in an enterprise that was to create 500 skilled and high paying jobs in the first year and 8,000 of the same jobs in the 5th year.

That was years ago and at that rate, and given the built in promotion of entrepreneuriship, those employees would have started their own enterprises as they were only to work for the investor for 2 years and be given money to start their own global IT consulting with out help.

Yet, some incompetent, greedy person stood in the way of having this happen so the investor gave him and the country the middle finger.

It need not have happened and must make sure this does not happen in the new administration. I have already talked to the investor and they have heeded my call to revisit the investment so we shall do so once the new government is in place.

We have our role to play in making sure this backwardness does not continue and exposing the culprits with facts is a good way to start except I am holding this one for the new adminstration simply because it will make no difference.

However, going forward, we shall expose these phonies.

We must hold the government accountable by holding her feet to the fire and exposing these phonies is just part of that. To be sure, I am not talking about mega corruption which we all know about or even minor corruption but specifically idiots who block or stand in the way of investments because of their incompetence, selfishness, and greed which is form of its own toxic backwardness.

The new adminstration cannot have any of them in government and we, the people, shall see to that by demanding no less. Yes, that includes you and me. Let’s not just go out there in our partisan bunkers rooting for our favorite candidate when the enemy of the people are these people they bring to government and it doesn’t matter and hasn’t mattered who is president.

That must change starting from August 2022.

We all know who will make that happen and he will God willing.

 

Interior PS Karanja Kibicho Lesson for “Hustlers”

According to Kenyans.co,ke, Interior Principal Secretary, Karanja Kibicho, confronted a young Deputy President William Ruto’s supporter during a public function in Kirinyaga. The young man, a boda boda operator was critical of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government due to the hard financial times the young man says he has experienced.

The young man told the PS that he was supporting Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) because he believes electing Ruto will lower the prices of commodities such as sugar, rice, milk and flourthat the common mwananchi depends on for their day-to-day life.

In educating the young man, Kibicho asked the man what Ruto will do to bring down prices for these commodities to which the young man responded with no answer other than to say this is what Ruto has promised. Asked if the young man was aware aware that the prices of commodities were increasing even in neighbouring countries, the young man confessed this is not something he is aware.

Specifically, the young man said he was not cognizant of the prices of basic commodities in neighbouring countries and he was also not informed on the growth of the economy in the last three years.

PS Kibicho said young people need to start thinking for themselves and avoid being influenced by politicians with promises that are not realistic.

“You are talking about Kenya’s economy being bad, but when you look at the statistics, it has actually improved compared to 2019. If you vote for UDA, how will the price of sugar go down?” PS Kibcho posed.

“You are being told that because you are hustlers you will form a government. How will they give you positions in government? There are certain qualifications for that and some of our young people do not have them and that limits them. What we need to do is create avenues for young people to have jobs,” the PS further educated the young man.

PS Kibicho is on to something here; all these “hustlers” are being fooled into believing someone has a miracle to deliver if he is miraculously sworn as president. The promises they are being fed are based on nothing realistic any government can implement.

Rather, the promises are made purely to appeal to emotion and not reason in the hopes enough voters can be fooled into believing them and therefore ostensibly voting for the promisor on that basis but if the promisor somehow gets sworn as president, he will only be catering to his interests and those of his cronies. One can imagine how high up in the stratosphere grabbing and corruption will go if those who have proven to be masters in the vice ever step into State House as president and company.

Contrast that with the only candidate who has spent his whole political career agitating for change that has produced results that we all enjoy this notwithstanding the fact he has not been sworn as president and despite the fact he has clearly won presidential elections at least twice.

What Kibicho has done here is what needs to be do across the country by all of us who are for real change in the country, not platitudes and empty slogans.

We owe it to ourselves and our fellow brothers and sisters to shake loose tribal considerations, hate and ill-informed emotions and focus on what actually matters in bringing about desired change.

This “hustler” narrative is the most insidious empty political slogan to ever grace our land and rivals that the one time now failed former US president donald trump who, among many other lies, promised to “clean the swamp” in Washington only to bring an ocean of criminality, incompetence and moronic arrogance unlike the civilized world has ever seen since the birth of government and politics.

We cannot let that happen in Kenya.

Not now, not ever.

 

Ruto’s Misrepresentations, Half-Truths, and Other Misleading Assertions at CSIS

Deputy President William Ruto was interviewed this morning at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). The event was billed as a “candid discussion” with Ruto, but a closer analysis reveals the man simply peddled a collection of misrepresentation, half-truths, and other misleading assertions.

The interview covered governance, the economy and foreign policy. This analysis only covers the governance discussion if you can call it that.

The interview was conducted by Mvemba Phezo Dizole who is the director and senior fellow for the African Program at CSIS.

Dizole opened the interview by noting the DP “needed no introduction.” This is something usually said of someone prominent and well known to the audience. The audience in this case was those who follow CSIS events and those who got the invitation to attend the online event. It is at least arguable Ruto needed no introduction to this audience, especially those watching the event who are not Kenyan.

Ruto was given an opportunity to make his opening remarks and to his credit, he started by acknowledging the strong relationship between Kenya and the US. Highlighting Kenya’s significance in the region, Ruto said our country is “sitting in a hostile” region where the “nation states around us are struggling to be nations” making Kenya standout with a lot of pressure to remain stable.

“We believe that it is the democratic culture that will underpin and guarantee the stability of not just Kenya and the region as well,” he said.

He then went on to say he was in Washington for a “couple of meetings” with unspecified US government officials or staff. He also said he was meeting with others about “programs” in Kenya primarily in agriculture.

Transiting to the elections—and the only reason why he is in Washington, Ruto said the elections of 9^th August are critical not just for Kenya but the region as well.

Issues “on the ballot” on 9^th August according to Ruto

Ruto identified three things he deems to be at the core of our elections, and these are, first, answering the question “whether we are going forward or we succumb to forces that want us to go backwards.”

According to Ruto, the elections will be a referendum on our 2010 constitution which, according to him, is a constitution which was “billed to be the most progressive in our region, complete with comprehensive bill of rights.”

The 2010 constitution is on the ballot in August because, according to Ruto, there are those in his school of thought who think “we have a wonderful constitution and whatever is remaining, the challenges that are there [are] on completing implementation of the constitution.”

On the other side, says Ruto, are his competitors who “believe that the constitution we have is not serving us well” and that they have proposed a “raft of amendments close to 72 amendments completely to reverse the progressive constitution.”

Ruto calls those he characterizes as such as “counter reformers”

The second issue Ruto believes will be “on the ballot” is political capture. According to Ruto, the issue will be is whether the election “about leaders and positions and power or is it about the people, their empowerment and progress.”

Ruto says he believes strongly that the elections should be about the people.

“We have elections about leaders and positions and power, and they are never satisfied,” says Ruto.

The third item Ruto says will be “on the ballot” is the economy.

According to Ruto, how to have an economy that is responsive to the people’s needs is something he and his team have been ahead of even where President Joe Biden is with his policies on moving the U.S economy forward.

“When I listened to President Biden the day before yesterday and he made a fundamental statement ‘trickle down doesn’t work,’ that is a position we took before the U.S. did,” declared Ruto.

“We have already discovered trickle down does not work,” he emphasized, adding the reason being the policy leaves huge sections of the population behind.

Ruto then went on to plug his “bottoms up” rendition of his economic policy.

These three, Ruto said, are the issues that will be “on the ballot” come 9^th August.

The way the elections go will determine “whether we are moving forward or we are denigrating the gains we have made and by so doing engaging the reverse gear.”

Democracy in Kenya

Noting most people recall what happened in Kenya following the 2007 elections, and most recently in 2017, the interviewer Dizolele asked Ruto what his thoughts are about democracy in Kenya going forward and specifically what his views are on the pros and cons of BBI and efforts to restructure the government.

Ruto gave what has become the mantra for those who oppose BBI and that is, according to them, BBI was an effort to create positions “for everyone.”

“Not every leader can be in power or get what they want,” Ruto lectured, rather, “we have to focus on the people. What is in it for people. What do people want?”

Ruto answered his questions by saying people want jobs, access to credit and productivity in farming.

Ruto then used the moment to plug in his newfound partners in his quest, ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula, saying he is now working with them because they have suddenly decided they are united in their common purpose to focus on the people, “and not positions or sharing of power.”

“It will never be possible to create enough positions for all the leaders,” said Ruto, adding “but it is possible to share prosperity if we focus on a more prosperous country.

On BBI, which Ruto danced on both sides of the issue from its inception through when it was sent to life-support, he said there was not a single bridge BBI was to bridge.

Rather, according to Ruto, “every bridge consigned was destroyed” by BBI, which he now calls a “fraudulent political experiment that left the country worse.”

The reasons Ruto cites for this include killing the opposition.

“Because of BBI we do not have a government or the opposition,” says Ruto adding “when you mesh the opposition with the government you end up with system of government not known anywhere in the world, not a monarch, not a democracy.”

This, according to Ruto, made BBI and the handshake that started it all an agent of destruction that “destroyed the opposition by coopting the opposition into government, compromising constitutional oversight responsibilities [of the opposition.”

Ruto also says BBI destroyed Jubilee, the governing party which he claims has been reduced from 180 members in Parliament to “almost a quarter.”

Ruto squarely places the blame on President Uhuru Kenyatta without mentioning his name or title, choosing to only refer to him as the “party leader.”

“The party leader destroyed the party that had a majority in Parliament,” Ruto charges, adding “in doing so the party leader is now a squatter in his position.

“Our plans to develop the country were shelved and its place they put in place this monster” which according to Ruto was to do bad things for the country, including creating an imperial presidency.

“Fortunately, the whole charade was stopped by the courts because of imminent danger of the court itself,” Ruto rendered his verdict on BBI.

Ruto then wrapped up the segment on democracy by calling for acceptance of election results. “Up and until we accept that there is only one way in a democracy that we all go to elections and a democrat must accept the results.”

“Every presidential candidate must be made to commit to respect the will of the people,” he emphasized, adding “I have done this and waiting for my competitors to do the same so we can have a free fair election.”

ICC and the System

The interviewer then asked Ruto why anyone would believe him in his now denouncing the same government system of which he has been a part of and specifically his being taken and charged at the ICC for crimes against humanity.

Ruto disposed of the questions by admitting, yes, he was part of the system but according to him now, he is no stranger to Kenyans and that his record in the various government positions he has held speaks for itself. He did not use those exact words about his record but, by not listing any accomplishments, he was saying the same thing.

As to his being charged at the ICC, his answer is he believes in the maxim everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Ruto says the fact that he and the c-accused submitted themselves to the ICC, they did not run away and the process itself cleared them.

Displaying a hint as to his being professionally prepared for the interview by a media savvy person, Ruto used the question to reiterate his belief and convictions about the rule of law, and his past which he knows is hovering over his candidacy, at least from the perspective of keen observers in both Washington and back home:

Ruto said he has shown by going to the ICC that he is a man willing to submit himself to rule of law, that he will accept the outcome of the election whichever way it goes and that he will deal with any factual or legal issues within the parameter of the law.

He then concluded his answers on this segment by repeating what he said earlier that he is confident that August 10, Kenya is going to be peaceful.

“The people of Kenya will do their thing. They will elect leaders of their choice.”

Analysis

Take a speech or assertions made by any evil or most hated person like Hitler or Idi Amin and take away the evil and backward pronouncements in those speeches, you will be surprised to find things that they say that are rational and would resonate with you or anyone else who hates them.

A well-prepared politician can smoothly weave in lies, misrepresentations and distortions in a speech sprinkled with some facts and half-truths such that the person watching or listening will come away convinced the person has delivered an eloquent speech of the truth and nothing but the truth.

It is only when one takes a magnifying glass and examines each assertion made does the truth come out glaringly as to the lies, misrepresentations, and distortions.

There is plenty of that in Ruto’s appearance at CSIS and here are just a few of them:

First, Ruto said he is in Washington for “a couple” of meetings related to government and agriculture but nothing about propping up or promoting his presidential candidature. Putting aside not mentioning who he was meeting with, this is simply a half-truth. Yes, he may have had those couple of meetings but who else he met and what that is intended to do for his campaign is left to your imagination, if you care.

Second, Ruto enumerated issues he claims will be “on the ballot” come 9^th August. That is just not true; the only thing that will be on the ballot are names of presidential candidates all down to the MCA.

There won’t be any issue on the ballot that voters will be asked to vote on. Ruto was not saying this by accident, but he was advised by his professional handlers to use the technique to make Americans understand the delivery from that perspective because by framing the issues as he has and positioning himself as the one on the right side of those issues, he is hoping to cash in on the misleading assertion.

For example, when Ruto says the August elections will be a referendum on the 2010 constitution, this is just false. There is no referendum on anything and there won’t be any in the August elections. After describing the 2010 constitution as “wonderful” and that those who seek to make changes to it via BBI are turning the country backward, which is false, Ruto is cleverly hoisting himself as the savior of the constitution and therefore country in the ears and eyes of those he can so fool.

Ruto frames another issue on the August elections as choosing between “the people” on one side and “leaders and positions and power” on the other hand. Even a diehard Ruto supporter can see why that is a false choice. It also makes no sense why one would cast an issue this manner, even when it is fallacious, but nothing a politician says in a setting like this is accidental. Ruto is trying to cast himself as the “populist” or for “the people” and knows well how that propelled a certain person to the U.S. presidency and therefore hoping to accomplish the same.

Third, Ruto asserts that those who lose elections must accept the final results which is something he said he has pledged publicly and urges those vying for the presidency to pledge the same. As usual, Ruto is trying to have it both ways; just a few days before and in a foreign land no less, Ruto pleaded with the U.S to help stop rigging what he strongly hinted is rigging intended to keep him away from State House. By planting in the American minds that plans are afoot to rig him out no different than Trump did ahead of the 2020 elections, Ruto is clearly positioning himself like Trump to reject the 2022 elections if he not the one declared the victor. That is likely what is going to happen than a meek Ruto accepting the outcome of the elections, going by his history and utterances lately.

Fourth, Ruto says he and his team discovered that trickle down economics does not work before Biden did and apparently just learned about America’s position on trickle down economics when heard Biden speak the other day. I do not believe this was a lie for the DP genuinely may not know the history of trickle-down economics. He can be given a pass on that but not the wheelbarrow and other gimmicks he trying to hoodwink voters into believing he knows something about the economy retired President Mwai Kibaki did not know back in 1960s when he helped craft our country’s economic policies after independence.

Fifth, Ruto made several categorically provable false assertions about BBI and when he was not doing so, he was spewing half-truth and misleading statements. For example, Ruto repeated the false claim that BBI was about “creating positions” for leaders who have lost elections. This is a false claim, or lie, depending on how much benefit of doubt one wishes to give the DP that has been exposed as such time and again there is no need to further do so here. Suffice to say BBI has been and continues to be a well-crafted solution to address structural issues without current governance.

Ruto’s claim that BBI was a “fraudulent political experiment that left the country worse” is not only equally false, but also belied by the fact he never categorically opposed BBI even as his minions were badmouthing it through the day the courts derailed the process. Do you know why? Because he knew he would benefit from it if passed, and openly trash it if failed, which is what he is doing now.

The irony of it is BBI has not filed; just because the lower courts derailed it does not mean the Supreme Court cannot do the right thing and give it fresh life, which is exactly what many analysists believe will be the case.

Yet, Ruto did not once mention that the BBI case is on appeal!

That is being disingenuous at best or deception by misleading.

Sixth, Ruto claimed that the handshake and BBI destroyed the opposition by Uhuru and ODM leader Raila now working together. That’s just another false assertion because everyone including Ruto himself knows he is the de facto opposition leader since he decided to take Uhuru and Raila on in every step of the way since BBI workforce was formed.

Last but not least, not much needs to be said about what Ruto said about Uhuru and Jubilee other than to say it is continued belittling and disrespecting the president to say Uhuru is now heading Jubilee as a squatter. To call Uhuru a squatter in his own party which he claims is a skeleton of its former self is something which in the past would have earned Ruto severe consequences. Cumulatively, however, these insults, disrespecting and belittling Uhuru have had the effect of hardening Uhuru and his people’s resolve to make sure Ruto does not see the inside of State House as president.

These misrepresentations, distortions and misleading assertions by Ruto aside, his trip to Washington has been anything but a failure in the sense it generated more negative stories than anything positive he had hoped to accomplish with it. I will elaborate on that soon time allowing.