Has the Rwandan ‘disease’ spread to Kenya?

Psychologists long discovered that humans always tend to remember something or someone by the different things they can associate with that particular person or thing. Modern day marketers call it branding. With a brand, a mere word or logo compels the mind to immediately recall numerous attributes. For example when one mentions the word (name) Mandela your mind will rush to things like 27yrs in jail, the flowery shirts, the old man’s signature voice, his grey hair and the numerous photo opportunities where he appears with other people (who were dying to stand next to the living legend). Similarly, for a long time when one mentioned Rwanda to a foreigner, the only thing that would come to mind was the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Such people would then hit you with a barrage of questions like; how are things in that country? How do you tell the difference between the Hutu and Tutsi? Which group was killing the other?” However we must admit that things have gradually changed for the better. These days when I mention to people that I live in Rwanda I hardly get any of the ‘old and weird’ questions. Instead they ask me about the things they have heard but not confirmed. My friends are always quick to say things like; I hear Kigali is very clean. I heard that Kagame [Pres] does not tolerate corruption. Others even ask me, how I ‘survive’ in a place with so many laws! Of course I just tell them that I survive like all other law abiding people! The clear thing now is that Rwanda is now more famous for gorilla tracking, clean streets and its zero-tolerance to corruption policies than anything else. And as any brand specialist will tell you, a brand campaign is only effective if it delivers what it promises. The fact that Rwanda has actually dealt with corruption fiercely, has clean streets and vigorously promotes its tourism among others has ensured that the genocide tag fades away gradually. Anyone who has spent time in the different East African countries will have noticed that each country has its positives and negatives. The ideal situation would be for each country to do away with the negatives and adopt the good things that its neighbours have. Rwanda may not be the perfect template but on some grounds it would be good if the other EAC members borrowed a few tricks from this place. As our brothers in Tanzania were waiting for the elections results from the just concluded presidential elections (for more than three days) in Kenya the anti-graft war was taking shape. With its huge economy, Kenya has also nurtured for itself an image of a grand corruption nation. Moi’s regime epitomised this grand corruption and Pres. Mwai Kibaki has often been accused of not doing enough to tame the corruption snake that has eaten up almost all sectors of the country. Now that the evening of his reign has come, Kibaki seems to be faced with legacy concerns and has decided to engineer a clean-up exercise. I recently saw him on Citizen TV stressing that corrupt government officials are useless to their country. The passing of a new ‘progressive’ constitution in August has compelled the leadership in Kenya to walk the talk on the fight against corruption. The first head to roll was the eloquent but controversial Rift Valley kingpin, William Ruto who was forced to resign from his portfolio as Minister of Higher Education. This week he even made the trip to The Hague to meet ICC officials over the allegations on his role in the post election violence. Kenya’s Foreign Minister, Moses Wetangula followed soon after when he resigned to allow investigations in a scandal that is said to have cost the country more than $14m in botched land deals abroad. It is alleged that Wetangula got himself entangled (seems to rhyme with his name) in the embassy scandal when he tried to protect some other corrupt fellows. Before the dust could settle on Wetangula and Ruto, the heat was turned on the Water Minister, Charity Ngilu. Ngilu is still claiming her innocence in a controversy over the alleged favouring of her region in the financing of water projects. Meanwhile Musalia Mudavadi is also being accused of connections to a land deal over a cemetery that went bad. If our brothers can continue with this fight against corruption perhaps they will eventually get to share the zero corruption tag with Rwanda. The other day it was reported that Malawian government officials were impressed by the Umuganda practice that has ensured the cleanliness of Rwanda’s streets. I just pray the cleanliness and corruption fight ‘diseases’ can spread to more countries like the proverbial plague. ssenyonga@gmail.com