Put the incorruptible in leadership

Kenya is one of the most corrupt nations in the world.

Globally, we are known as a corrupt nation while nationally, we call ourselves corrupt.

Corruption has become a password in our homes, schools, offices, universities, churches and government offices.

In our struggle to establish who is who in the corruption industry, we find ourselves in the chaos of blame game.

The war against corruption has fatigued its direct fighters — police, Judiciary, Parliament and churches. Speakers of all kinds — including politicians, clergy and judges — have condemned and even cursed it. And there are laws to punish the corrupt.

But there are no signs of corruption yielding to such condemnation. The more it is castigated, the more it spreads.

We read of financial scandals on a weekly basis. Worse, most of the corrupt deals involve high-profile government officials.

It defeats all logic when officials entrusted with the national or county treasury are listed among the corrupt.

My first book on corruption is called When the Best is Corrupt. The definition of ‘the best’ is the schooled, university graduates, leaders and professionals, among others, who can be described as educated, cultured and civilised.

When such a category of citizens is corrupt, what is left of a nation?

With all this awareness, is it possible to find Kenyans who have defied the scourge of corruption and remained faithful and trusted?

Those who have stood their ground in defence of integrity, law, specifications and code of ethics and can be singled out as faithful, trusted and reliable and to whom their word is their bond?

My answer is Yes. They are there, but they are silenced, threatened and intimidated by fear of their corrupt bosses and have chosen to be secret disciples of integrity.

As to the question of how many they are, I can affirmatively state that they are more than the corrupted at all levels of public service and other sectors. All they need is exposure of their suffering.

Corruption has therefore entrenched itself deeply into Kenya’s culture. When a problem like corruption, impunity, poverty, immorality, dependence syndrome and criminality persists in a family, community, county or a nation for too long, there can only be one reason for that — weak leadership demonstrated in low intellectual capability to conceptualise the intensity of the problem.

This inadequacy expresses itself in: problem repetition, leadership chaos of blame game and stagnation of growth and development leading to unemployment, borrowed economy and poverty of a nation.

The way to identify the incorruptible, therefore, is the process of replacing the corrupt officials with the faithful remnants and the incorruptible.

Who are these lovers of integrity we are looking for? They are those with capacities to resist corruption out of principles and patriotic fervour.

They are the philosophers of our time, namely; lovers of people and their republic and not merchants, who are lovers of money and pleasure (Plato 430BC).

They are the national best who are everywhere and we have to look for them like the precious stone. They will never betray us.

They will be our protection, development, expansions, employment, prosperity and wealth of our nation.

They will possess and protect the dignity of leadership as their property. All this while poverty, lawlessness, impunity, fake gold and corruption belong to merchant leaders.

When merchants assume national leadership, it is anybody’s guess — the future of the nation cannot be predicted.

When leadership is bought with money, as we witness during electioneering period, philosophers give way and merchants take over the leadership of a nation. That is where we are.

The remnants are philosophers; they are rare and needed but not wanted. If we truly need them, we have to dig deep.

They are hewn from special hard rocks buried deep in the soil of knowledge and wisdom. To find them is to discover gold instead of silver or bronze.

To miss them in our leadership is to accept mediocre, naive and complacent leadership towards corruption, poverty and backwardness.

When the centre cannot hold, things fall apart (Chinua Achebe, 1958). The weekly reports of scandals in our dailies denote that the centre is not holding and things are falling apart.

To find the incorruptible, I beseech you to seek, search and research for the leadership philosophers we desperately miss in our nation.

This is what Kenya demanded by including the National Values of Kenya in our Constitution, which is our secret security.