British historian Lord Acton said: Power corrupts; and absolute power
corrupts absolutely. In other words, a person's moral compass goes
bonkers when his or her power increases.
More recently, Lord Owen, a former British Foreign Secretary and
neuroscientist by training, argued that power does not just corrupt
politicians; it can actually drive some of them crazy.
In his 2007 book, The Hubris Syndrome: Bush, Blair and the Intoxication
of Power, Owen argues that for many politicians at the top, power has
an intoxicating effect much like that induced by a mood-altering drug.
They become hubristic (possessed of arrogance, pompous, overbearing,
supercilious, and over-confident) and live in their own make-believe
reality.
Corruption persists in Kenya because there are people in power who
benefit from it. An anti-corruption commission has been at work in
Kenya since 1997, but by 2009, Kenya is still classified as one of the
most corrupt states in the world.
Significant inroads against corruption are currently impossible for
many reasons. In most parts of the country, the local people are
already resigned to it. They think there is nothing they can do about
it. They therefore try to accommodate it by paying bribes.
At best, the anti-graft war today is a matter of triage. Does one start
tinkering with corruption at the very top, the bureaucratic middle or
the street-level traffic cop?
We cannot expect to root out graft by setting up a toothless
anti-corruption agency or by paying lip-service to good governance to
impress donors.
Effective anti-corruption efforts require an active democratic culture
and a vigilant citizenry empowered to confront and fight corruption in
daily life.
GENUINE ANTI-CORRUPTION EFFO-rts must begin by empowering ordinary
people to fight back. There are some successful experiments in
grassroots efforts in which ordinary people have been given the tools
to fight back.
In India, for instance, they have successfully organised local
vigilance commissions in many towns and brought together interest
groups to investigate corruption. The commissions have worked.
In Bangalore, city residents have been involved in rating the quality
of all major service-providers. The results are used to put pressure on
government officials to ensure these service providers are actually
accountable to the citizens.
In parts of Brazil they counter corruption by engaging citizens in
participatory budgeting. That way, they have decreased the levels of
corruption and cronyism.
Creating a bloated self-perpetuating anti-corruption bureaucracy is
mere window-dressing. The real answer lies in empowering ordinary
people to defend themselves against predators.
Corruption in Kenya is an evil with a thousand faces. It is woven into
the fabric of the political culture. Kenyans should get their hopes
high. The thugs in power, who are bleeding the country dry, rule by
fear and greed. As long as they remain in power, corruption will reign.
Those engaged in the business of corruption should heed the words of Karl Kraus:
Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the
morals of an individual; the former invariably endangers the morals of
the entire country.