To claim sovereignty without integrity is self-destructing

Another threat has been issued by yet another foreign diplomat to bar corrupt senior public officials from travelling to their countries.

This time American Ambassador Kyle McCarter’s call was met with criticism from none other than an MP, who did not take kindly to the threat issued by the envoy.

Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo felt that Kenya’s sovereignty was threatened when the Akasha brothers, who were facing narcotics-related charges, were extradited to the United States in unclear circumstances.

But their transfer from Kenya was, in fact, a rendition and not extradition. Which is a different matter altogether.

What we need to get angry with is our administration, which allowed for the rendering of the brothers to the US, rather than the US itself.

The application for the extradition had not come to its full conclusion when the brothers were rendered from Kenya to America.

The legal route that should have enabled the suspects to be handed over to the US lawfully seemed to have been blocked — if the report relating to the menace of illegal drugs and barons in Kenya sent by the US together with extradition request some 10 years before is anything to go by. What was the US to do?

Humiliation of Kenyan leaders by being barred from travelling abroad as they are labelled graft suspects is not only felt by them, but the entire country.

As we call ourselves sovereign, we need to ask what it is that drives many of our leaders to prefer to take their sojourns abroad apart from investing the public funds stolen from us.

Many African leaders seem to suffer this innate sense of insecurity that makes them to believe everything white is still superior.

No wonder they prefer to heal and die surrounded by white doctors abroad as their wives shop.

They are like a person with an unkempt garden peering over the fence every day, admiring the neighbour’s well-kept lawn.

When our leaders steal public funds and use them abroad to get the best possible healthcare for themselves, shop for designer items and buy expensive houses there, what they are doing is propping up the economy of another country while killing theirs.

If they are blind to such an anomaly, then mere mortals in Africa are lucky that foreign diplomats are coming to their rescue by barring the thieving leaders from their countries in a bid to help them to see sense and where their duty lies.

Sovereignty is not only to be claimed by placing countries between the four walls of north, east, south and west.

It is linked by the values shared within the borders of a country. Patriotism is one such value that forms the bedrock of a sovereign country. Patriotism is through action and not just words.

Chairman Mao, the brains behind the cultural and economic revolution of China, is said to have worked so hard to achieve his vision that he didn’t have time to even brush his teeth, which eventually fell off.

Such claims were disputed, of course, but to see the global rise of China now, it is difficult to question his patriotism.

Would an African leader be prepared to lose his teeth for the public interest? I bet not, as he will have none left to ‘eat’ public funds with!

The other aspects that would cement our sovereignty is to ensure that our institutions have integrity.

We can’t talk of our sovereignty being threatened when we do so little in instilling integrity in key institutions such as the Judiciary, which has constantly faced a barrage of criticism for failing to uphold the rule of law.

The rendering of the Akasha brothers would not have materialised had we stayed on the legal course and dealt with serious crimes such as trade in illegal drugs and graft effectively.

We let ourselves be gullible by repeatedly failing to clear our institutions of people with integrity issues and doing whatever it takes to preserve the independence and power of key institutions within the criminal justice system.

President Uhuru Kenyatta had reportedly declined to gazette the names of 41 judges picked by Judicial Service Commission, citing alleged adverse reports touching on some of the nominees.

If, indeed, his reservations, expressed through Secretary to the Cabinet Joseph Kinyua, have any credence, then we need to question the whole machinery that is the JSC.

When are they going to raise the integrity bar within the Judiciary if, as appointing authorities, they fail to do due diligence when hiring judges?

Ironically, we demand for our sovereignty to be respected then ask for help to build our justice institutions from the very people we attack.

Any sovereign country worth its salt would have been at the forefront of supporting its justice system by working hard to uphold integrity in such a key institution first.

It doesn’t help to ask for respect when we don’t respect ourselves, our institutions and our way of life.

Sovereignty is more than the geographical exercise of carving out borders. It involves integrity, pride and patriotism too.