Sometimes we lose focus in the war against graft because we tend to generalize things. I think we would be better of if we dealt with air supply, cost inflation, pilferage of stores, influence peddling on a case by case basis. That way we would have clarity in our perceptions.As the Greeks say, tuchambue “undu kwa undu”.
As for NMG, siwaonei, they have this habit of throwing the public a stinker but when the smell is too much they move on to the next story leaving the public suffocating.
Exactly what I have been saying…you regurgitate numbers or swallow them without interrogating and you end up with a heated argument that’s not based on fact.
The issue here is that the so called war on graft is politically motivated and as such it is being done in bad faith. Whether you agree or not justice that is applied in a skewed manner is worse than no justice. Such justice creates a retaliatory attitude and the parties involved never heal. As a member of the public I will generalize primarily because the organs left with the role of investigating, prosecuting and imprisoning will offer shifty information then carry out a shoddy job and the real perpetrators will walk Scott free. I will generalize secondly because I am not blind or foolish; I know that we have no true capitalists in this country: that 95% of the so called wealthy in Kenya are economic thugs: I will generalize because we cannot tie the increase of dollar millionaires and billionaires in Kenya to any meaningful industrial growth: I will generalize because in a country of looters it is a well known fact that only two sectors grow i.e. real estate and securities exchange…
A Kenyan trying to challenge people with ‘where is the evidence’ is simply insulting our intelligence. We have relatives in Govt and in security organs…people know
that guy used to teach Physics at Egerton, his way of looking at things was & is usually weird
The fact of the matter Kenya imejaa siasa… most of the times auditor general reports are full of hot air… For instance when you hear unsupported payments, it is not always the case, payments are supported but auditors request more than illogical support. When the matter heads to court any sober judge will throw away the case.
Your argument can be summarized as thus;I have been complaining, I know you are doing something about it but I don’t like it because so and so is not there so I will throw the baby out with the bath water and continue with my grumbling.
That the war against corruption is politically motivated is true, it has to be ,the only reason the fight against corruption has not succeeded in the past is due to lack of political will. Political motivation is thus a key ingredient for success. We Kenyans made it so when we demanded the president to act rather than EACC.
You chose to ignore the fact that one of the first actions Uhuru made in his second term was to clean out the DCI and the state law office, these two offices are leading the fight against corruption and sidelining EACC which is hapless to be honest.
Kenya has a lot of entrepreneurs, I am one and I made my money clean.There are thugs for sure,but there are also people who made their money clean. I think it is a fallacy to claim that the only path to success is by establishing heavy industries,service industry is still an industry you know. The fact that one does not own a manufacturing company does not mean they stole money,besides,the real estate/construction industry supports a lot of heavy industries of the kind that you like (cement,steel) to the light industries of the kind few notice,(furniture, interior). The securities market?I guess this also falls into the generalization category, profit warnings all over.
The general rule is if you make a claim,you are supposed to support it with evidence, even here on ktalk. Demanding for evidence is not an insult to your intelligence, you making some heavy claims but failing to back it up is the insult.
Let me address your base issue,you feel that there is a powerful person who is pulling the strings of corruption and making all the major moves while the rest are just pawns, but have you considered that there might not be a great wizard of Oz behind that curtain?That we don’t need a straw heart of corruption because we are already corrupt? For all I remember, MM came up with the term cartels, for him it was a way of enabling the electorate visualize a corrupt elite as the enemy but we have turned the phrase into a bogeyman whom we assign all evils while we remain pure. I think that is rationalizing.
At advanced levels of educational pursuit as you prepare to engage in research work one of biases you are trained on is confirmation bias. This comes into play when you give more credence to evidence that align with your views and underweight that which goes contrary. Cognizant of the above, allow me to introduce a new theory, that in most instances corruption does not need an evil overload but the greed of civil servants is sufficient. They know the system better than anyone else and have access,they then rope in outside partners as needed al a Ngiritas.
Finally, your reasons for generalizing are based on ignorance, corruption can only die by a thousand cuts,nobody is innocent,no real perpetrators or fake ones,wabebe mzigo wao.
very well put.
Masterly done. I read it and the weekend mood just evaporated. Its Monday already. Ktalk is interesting, brilliance sitting next to stupidity.
@Useless Spectator has ended this debate.
Real estate and securities market are the most common avenues of laundering money and proceeds of crime. Profit warnings for companies has got nothing to do with it. Research on that.
Politically motivated solutions in my case refers to a situation where matters are dealt with depending on which political divide one is in.
There is no specific powerful person, there are instead powerful individuals.
Your small business fails to grow into something meaningful because of lack of certain amenities and an environment that can be created by a govt that 90% focuses on the interests of its citizens.
My arguements appear basic to you because you have a very basic way of evaluating government and its functions. You need to read on politics and what made Africa and Kenya a third world and how Singapore, Britain, US, Taiwan became what they are.
There is nothing to laud Kenyatta on. Just because a million people do something it doesn’t make it right. We present arguements based on how full our stomachs are and our political leanings.
When I stated ‘where is the evidence’ I meant those people who knowing the kind of country we have will justify someone not being jailed because there was no evidence. In a country where a court file can disappear off course evidence can never be found. So to tell Kenyans there was no evidence is to insult them.
You see my virtual friend…your inability to understand because you either cannot read between the lines or you went to school where you were spoon fed every information made you argue from an assumptive point of view…all in all this I know to minimize corruption it has to be fought from the root cause not the symptoms and it has to cut across board.
so true
wachaneni nao wakule,but one day we will make them vomit