Protester Hanifa Adan’s X post and the conviction of former Samburu Governor Moses Lenolkulal offer the nation two distinct leadership integrity styles.
On Wednesday, September 4, Hanifa posted on her X page audited accounts of funding crowdsourced from 35,444 individual donors at home and in the diaspora. The post followed weeks of online abuse, unsubstantiated allegations, and toxicity that very directly targeted her history, money management skills, and personal integrity.
From the accounts, Sh 31.6 million was raised through a Mobi-changa account to care for those injured during the protest season. The unqualified audit report confirms that all the finances raised were managed in an accountable manner. The funds, less the 4.25 per cent M-Changa charges (Sh 1.3 million), treated 208 persons who were seriously or permanently injured and compensated 62 families whose loved ones were killed by police officers.
The audit is significant. Many individual donors gave the Occupy movement a large sum of funding. The money was raised, spent, and accounted for within three months. Hanifa’s public post also demonstrated a high level of emotional vulnerability that is very rare, even unheard of, among those managing public finances. She apologized for any offence caused and expressed how hard it was to manage public money while being serially accused of self-interest and theft.
Textbook leadership integrity training argues integrity is what you do, knowing no one is watching. I have often argued that personal integrity is also what you do when no one around you expects you to act with integrity.
Contrast this with Moses Lenolkulal’s legal tribulations. Convicted with ten co-accused, the former Governor has made Kenyan history. He is the first Governor to be sentenced to eight years for stealing Sh 83 million between 2013 and 2019 in an insider trading scheme that involved buying fuel and other lubricants from his own company. In a twist that only a corruption case can make, his successful appeal did not rest on his remorse and an apology to the people of Samburu. His appeal partially rested on his argument that he suffers from several medical conditions, including pre-eclampsia, a hypertension condition that affects only pregnant women. Justice Diana Kavetsa accepted the appeal and has released the presumably five-month-pregnant man on bail.
Any cursory reading of the economic crime cases in our courts or the reports of the Auditor General and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission paints a national picture of a state unable to protect itself or the public it is supposed to be serving. The battle against corruption has taken on the classic form of a public relations exercise, superficially preoccupied with pacifying the public and bilateral and multilateral partners while the looting continues unabated.
Both citizens and state officers agree on one thing: Kenya faces one of the worst resource crises in decades, threatening to halt national and county government operations. As this column and others have repeatedly argued, the lack of decisiveness in dealing with the ever-expanding networks of patronage, clientelism, and living large remains the major risk to human rights and national security.
The lack of disciplinary action on the reports of the Auditor General and other statutory bodies, the “don’t ask, don’t see” attitude of most parliamentarians, appointments and pardons of the ethically compromised, and the conflicts of interest that prevail at all levels remain staggering. As the Gen Z protests wane, impunity darkens our skies at corresponding levels.
With only three years to the 2027 elections, a poorly functioning economy and high public discontent, how state officers fuel or fight corruption remain the single biggest threat to state performance, the legacies of state officers and national stability. This week distinguished one fact for me again. Not all Kenyans are corrupt or willing to steal from us. In the contrasting cases of Hanifa Adan and Moses Lenolkulal, every Kenyan can see two very different leadership choices and styles.
Irũngũ Houghton is Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director and writes in his personal capacity. Email: [email protected]