By Fr Joakim Omolo
During the funeral mass of late Patrick Cornelius Odero Ahenda in Kabondo Kasewe, Homa Bay County April , the Catholic Bishop of Homa Bay, Michael Cornelius Otieno Odiwa said Kenya would have been counted among the first world countries had it not because of corruption and bad governance.

looters

The Bishop was right. Somebody has been looting the national treasury of Kenya with no shame. From 1990 to 1993, $600 million to $850 million “went missing.” That is about the same amount this struggling country received in foreign aid from the United States, Britain, Germany and other developed nations.
Corruption has become so Omni-present in Kenya with many corruption cartels that ending it is almost impossible. These looters and thieves found in every sector of our society. They are in the Executive arm of the government, the Legislature, the Judiciary, amongst health workers, in agriculture, in Churches, in the Mosques, in the Temples – everywhere. The quotes by PLO Lumumba, which have largely focused on governance, highlight the rot in the leadership in Kenya and of many African nations.

  • We live in a country where our young ladies who have recently attained the age of puberty cannot afford sanitary pads, but our men and women in public offices have iPads which they do not even know how to use.
  • We cannot live in a country where the looters of yesteryears assume they have undergone a Pauline-conversion because they are in opposition and oppose the Government of the day.
  • Parliamentarians must always remember that they are the people’s representatives. They must put themselves at the service of their Nation and not their Nation at their service as they often do.
  • A man may be a political animal, but there comes a time in a person’s life when true service must be the ultimate goal. In the history of our country, this is the time.
  • This country is so hypocritical that when Barack Obama is elected, they say he is Kenyan, but I said then that if Barack Obama were to come to this country, he would not even be elected a Councilor. 
  • Sometimes our leaders behave like hunters and gatherers. The only difference is that they gather money, land, houses, and cars.
  • They will not talk about agriculture, about education, about unemployment… the most critical thing is that it is going to be an ethnic census to determine which formation brings together the largest number of tribes.
  • You know one of the things that I find painful is for anybody to tell me to vote an individual because he is from my ethnic group. It is the greatest insult. Why did I go to school?
  • The tragedy of this country is that one is judged by his ethnic extraction rather than the content of his mind.
  • I am always surprised when I hear our so-called political leaders saying they want their tribesmen to enjoy the national cake, yet, I never hear then talking of baking the national cake. Even divine manna was exhausted.
  • Our Country must not have leaders whose greatest claim to fame is ill-gotten wealth and bellicose speeches at funerals. 
  • Most of our so-called successful civil servants who have joined politics and business, there is collapsed or collapsing public institution they once served.
  • We cannot run a country where virtue is vice and vice is a virtue. 
  • At all times, it should be remembered that our nations are fragile and like an egg, must be dealt with carefully.
  • Kenya has been a recipient of foreign aid since independence in 1963. Over the years, millions upon millions of dollars have been documented as stolen, skimmed, diverted or missing.