BURINI: What are you doing to slay graft dragon?

The war on corruption is a drag. We are always in the battlefield in a wasted war of words with no triumph. Can we just pack it in and glean elsewhere for wisdom?

In 2015, children from Langata Road Primary School made headlines around the world for physically seizing their playground that had been grabbed by a land developer for a hotel car park! The children didn’t wait for ‘Sany’, they used their bare hands to push down the metal gates and corrugated iron sheets that barricaded the land and took it back! Like anyone else who protests against graft, they too were teargassed by the police, but they were not scared off nor did they relent in securing what was rightfully theirs.

Kenyan children are bold! They don’t wait for parliamentary committees to investigate obvious cases of corruption where billions have been stolen in plain sight. They don’t have time to wait for justice to have its way when they can take up the arms of justice and give impunity its fair fight! So why aren’t adults just as bold whilst being vocal?

Well, we have to fend off our self-serving attitudes that reduce us to verbal tribal wars of who’s the most corrupt tribe. All the while the corrupt are still stealing and we haven’t even agreed to join in the fight against graft. Inevitably, we turn up to a fight late, already losers! Unlike adults, the children were strategic, united and goal-oriented.

One of the placards the children held up as they protested read, “Uhuru fight corruption and secure your legacy”. Had this foretold vision that is now the President’s core mandate been implemented four years ago, we would be further ahead!

In one placard, the children asked, “Dad, Mum, what did you do to change things?’ That’s got to sting, coming from a child! But they are right, what have you done to fight graft?

I agree some of the cases of billions stolen are entrenched in the system and are only coming up as investigations continue. However, if you’re privy to ongoing corruption, would you physically fight against it? As it stands, our war against corruption is primarily being fought on social media, yet it’s mainly infighting. I’m disappointed to say the children fought corruption better!

Although social media increases pressure for action to be taken, today’s corruption tweet and hashtag is soon replaced by another and the matter is quickly forgotten.

Social media has created the illusion there is momentum in the “fight” against graft yet no physical action is being taken. This talking approach is not practical and immediate and is therefore not effective. And so, we can tweet all day long, make empty threats and sit around waiting for the matter to resolve itself but if we do not change our tactics, we will remain subdued.

If the Langata Road Primary School children sat around lamenting, it’s more likely that their school would not have a playground to speak of today. You want to fight corruption; it’s time to stop talking and act. In the words of the children, what will you do to change things?