The plunder stops here

Many Kenyans are worried. Many Africans — particularly our closest neighbours — are worried.

And the rest of the world is also worried — which is what lies behind the latest flurry of diplomatic pressures.

The question is whether our own political leadership is worried.

My sense is that they are — but not necessarily about the same things.

The latest series in the Daily Nation, on land distribution immediately post-Independence, is shocking in its confirmation of what we’ve always anecdotally known.

The abuse of power and the public interest by those entrusted with leadership of the state for personal self-enrichment shows clearly just how far back go the personal economic and political interests that stand in the way of real transformation.

We have become used to window-dressing those personal economic and political interests with terms such as “lack of political will.”

The truth is that there is plenty of political will.

To protect those interests.

To get a piece of the action.

To ensure there will never be any accountability.

To concede a bone to the hungry public while the feast on public goods and resources goes on unchecked.

What we need to do while Machel is here is make the point yet again — that new laws, new policies, new institutions will ultimately mean nothing to the public unless they really, truly do draw a line in the sand: The plunder of the state (which is plunder of us, the public) stops here.

The casual contempt for the impoverished stops here.

Impunity for that plunder stops here. Impunity for the daily abuses and assaults on the impoverished also stops here.