From broad-based to now bread-based government, interesting time beckon

Once again, in the spirit of the season, I’ll refrain from calling anyone a liar or a thief, even the few entities that apparently received some Sh100 billion to create a platform to operate the new health insurance scheme.

Prezzo Ruto fumed that he is not a mad man to commit to such a deal, and I have no reason to doubt his pronouncement. But what I find to insanely unbelievable is the Auditor General’s revelation report that a clause within the same contract prohibited any prospects of the government developing a platform that would compete against the one leased at Sh100 billion.

Again, since we’re not as sharp as Prezzo Ruto, with a PhD whose field research was conducted in choppers, I will defer to his conclusion. The fact that I cannot tell SHA and SHIF apart, or other shifty acronyms that are propped to explain the new health insurance gestures towards what Senator Edwin Sifuna calls a “criminal enterprise”.

Those are very strong words, but then Sifuna pulls no punches. He recently called Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi a “class two dropout,” even though Sudi purports to have attended my alma mater in Nairobi, and recently received a PhD from a college that the police declared a “scene of crime”.

If hospitals and schools are scenes of crime, then many crimes are in the offing, even those that are yet to enter the Auditor General’s books. I am refraining from using her name, Nancy Gathungu, PhD—because her second name might appear to “betray” her, if you know what I mean. In our unique political lexicon, meaning is adduced from even the most odious attribute, like one’s last name, which is assumed to connote one’s assumed political loyalties, overriding their professional competencies.

People often forget that Gathungu is paid to audit how public funds are used, and her verdict is that Kenya Inc. is being looted blind, not just in the fiasco surrounding health insurance, but also in affordable housing and other government mega projects. Put simply, Kenya Kwanza’s foundational ethos is to steal.

Still, I refuse to call anyone a liar or a thief in the spirit of the season. Instead, I will take Prezzo Ruto’s words at face value: the opprobrium over his management of the nation are teething problems that will come to pass.

As for the severe criticism of his administration, including petitions to remove him from office for incompetence, it is part of our democratic culture. Ditto his overtures to the opposition to join the “broad-based,” or is it “bread-based” government?