PRESENTED AT THE TRADE UNION FEDERATION OF EASTERN

Transcript:PRESENTED AT THE TRADE UNION FEDERATION OF EASTERN:
PRESENTED AT THE TRADE UNION FEDERATION OF EASTERN AFRICA (TUEFA) CONFERENCE AT NAIROBI, KENYA DATED 14TH DAY OF AUGUST, 2018 By Prof. PLO – Lumumba, LL.D, D.Litt (hc), FCPS (K), MKIM Advocate of the High Courts of Kenya and Tanganyika THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION AND THE AFRICAN MYTHS CORRUPTION CULTURALLY AND COLLOQUIALLY DEFINED Various languages explain corruption in its various permutations. For example, in Kenyan Kiswahili corruption is described as “chai or kitu kidogo”, the Italian spintarella (meaning “a little push”), Greek fakelaki (“a little envelope”), French pot-de-vin (“a glass of wine”), Chinese chaqian (“tea-money”), Portuguese gaseoso (“soft drink”), Spanish mordida (“a bite”), Egyptian ashaan ad-dukhaan ( “something for your cigarettes”), and Syrian finjaan ‘ahwa (“a cup of coffee”) all suggest payments that are quite small and not too serious violations. In contrast, the Slovak pod stolom (“under the table”), the Korean noemul (“giving goods in secret”), and Japanese kuroi kiri (“black mist”) all suggest something much more sinister. Of course everything is relative—what appears relatively innocuous to one person may be quite sinister to another! A. INTRODUCTION “Without doubt, corruption has permeated the African society and anyone who can say that corruption in Africa has not become alarming is either a fool, a crook or else does not live in this continent”. -Chinua Achebe, The trouble with Nigeria- Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of an entire country. Karl Kraus, Australian satirist, 1874-1936, cited by E Campos & B Bhargava (2007) Tackling A social Pandemic in E Campos & S Pradhan (2007) The Many Faces of Corruption: Tackling Vulnerabilities and the Sector Level. World Bank. B. ORIGINS OF CORRUPTION Just as it is impossible not to take the honey (or the poison) that finds itself at the tip of the tongue, so it is impossible for a government servant not to eat up at least a bit of the King's revenue. Just as fish moving under water cannot possibly be found out either as drinking or not drinking water, so government servants employed in the government cannot be found out (while) taking money (for themselves). Kautilya, the Chief Minister to the king in ancient India, in his writing Arthasastra wrote in the fourth century. C. CAUSES OF CORRUPTION IN AFRICA The negative colonial legacy Poor leadership Politics of the belly Omnipotent state Greed and selfishness