GEMA AND NEPOTISM

Revolutions are defined as drastic changes in specific areas of a culture and could be political, economic, or social nature and always involve major changes in the way the governed and governed. Most political revolutions have more often than not involved the violent overthrow of regimes. The French revolution for instance occurred because the monarchy under Louis XVI was viewed as oppressive and corrupt and the social structure was rigid and did not allow for social mobility. The poor, uneducated class made up 98 percent of the population. While the upper classes of nobility and clergy only made up a mere 2 percent of the entire population. It is no wonder the people of France rose up in a spirit of nationalism to overthrow the oppressive system and establish a society controlled by them. Thanks lord, since independence Kenya has not had a violent revolution. As per the state of things, we might soon need a peaceful but radical revolution, which should dramatically shift the way things have been done so far.

The way things are done in Kenya can make one sick. One of the daily newspapers reported the following recently "we should stop pretending that we can ever be one people, sharing equally in the national resource. Two years ago, they took to Othaya Sh595 million for water development and to the larger Meru Sh429 million. The rest of Kenya’s 72 districts got Sh5 million each. This was in a year when tax collection was as follows: Central Province Sh1.8 billion, Nyanza Sh6.9 billion, Western Sh5.5 billion, Rift Valley Sh5.56 billion, North-Eastern Sh43 million, Coast Sh2.7 billion and Eastern Sh920 million”. The above seriously angered many Kenyans, yet nothing has changed, the Kibaki government is completely silent.

Just a few days ago, some MPs produced a list of top official of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), which stunk of nepotism to say the least. Fifteen out of fifteen top KRA officials were confirmed to hail from the Mt. Kenya region. To make matters worse, it also emerged that KRA had sacked all top employees who did not come from the named region. Even though KRA Commissioner General Mr Michael Waweru claims that, the officers were sacked due to non-performance and failing to meet set revenue targets, the fact that employees from Mt. Kenya region were not affected raises eyebrows. It seems that KRA was ethnically cleansed.

It is such blatant tribalism, which make people to want to change regimes by any means necessary. Why should such a central authority be controlled entirely by one tribe? Is this conducive for democracy or in a country with forty plus tribes? The MP for Mbita Otieno Kajwang had the following to say about the matter, "It is common knowledge both from within and outside the authority that the affected officers are some of the most technically endowed, experienced, principled and hardworking personnel with high level of integrity," I only hope that Hon. Otieno Kajwang is completely wrong for if he is right we are in for big trouble.

President Kibaki has constitutional powers to create districts, but has been going about the same in manner a reminiscent of the Moi´s regime. He is using the creation of districts to divide and even bribe regions, tribes and individuals. Even though he has, the constitutional right to create districts, common sense tells us that he should consult widely before doing so. Unilateral decisions were the cause of Biafra war. The former Eastern Region under Lt. Col. Ojukwu saw the act of the creation of states by decree without consultation as wrong and declared the region an independent state of "Biafra". The Federal Government in Lagos saw this as an act of secession and illegal and set to bring the region back to the fold by force of arms hence the civil war. It is also the same kind of tribalism, which sparked genocide in Rwanda.

The Government should see to it that national resources are shared equally among its citizens, after all every region pays taxes. Even as he is preparing for a second term re-election, president Kibaki has shown Kenyans that he does not care about their well-being. He has shown that all he is dong is for self-preservation and if he has to trample on them on his way there, so be it. He has clearly shown that he knows about politics of survival better than former presidents Moi and Kenyatta. Not only has he sidestepped what he was elected for by breaking almost all election promises but his hands off style has lead to serious nepotism. It is not therefore surprising that a government anti-corruption body ranked the Office of the President as the most corrupt department in a recent survey.

The president is a well-educated man but has constantly made some very uneducated mistakes. He has enough political experience but has made some very amateurish moves that at times threatened the very cohesion of the country. He has slowly but steadily taken the country back to where it was before Narc took power. Funnily enough, there are all sorts of moves on his part to rule for five more years. However, Kenyans have become wiser and will never let him, for he is a person whose actions or inaction can turn tribe against tribe, region against region and cause civil war. The trend of open nepotism in KRA, which is a reflection of what is happening in all governmental departments, scares many. This madness has to stop if Kenya is to continue being stable. The only way to ensure that is to show Kibaki the door in December 2007.