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Why should we care about the allegations of $100 million advanced by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei against the very government he helped win the elections?

Well, because when contractors bribe their way to Government contracts, they simply transfer that cost back to taxpayers and if they cannot do that they do a shoddy job since part of the cost has gone to the pockets of individuals.

I have always been a fan of leaders who talk. It is the speeches of great leaders that result in seminal policies and landmark changes in societies.

In fact, political leaders need to speak more in public because that is the only way the public gets to know what their leaders are doing in their interest or lack thereof. Therefore, the latest utterances by our political leaders, especially the luminaries in Government provides the public and alternative leadership with a basis to call the regime to act on the commitments they have made in public.

In the last few weeks, some leaders who can be considered part of the inner cycles of the regime came out guns blazing in their attacks of Cherargei.  Some went for the jugular by getting personal against the vocal senator, demeaning him in his Nandi county. Why would members of the same political party go after one of their own who has a track record of speaking. You see, Cherargei has a vocal DNA.

 He was scathing in describing how they would leave Jubilee and destroy it completely. He was among the loyal and hardy who throughout the campaign perfected the language of attack against the former regime in defence of the then Tanga Tanga movement.

It is, therefore, interesting that some Kenya Kwanza and specifically UDA luminaries are hellbent on gagging, vilifying, and attacking him. Seems like the good Senator knows something that hustlers need to know and as it has come out, his public appearances and speeches are not covering this regime in any glory, particularly Roads Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen who we have held in very high esteem. Perhaps the damage has already been done given the damning allegations the senator has made, which he has promised to buttress by adducing enough evidence, including the money trail. These are mere allegations and even though the vocal lawmaker keeps invoking the hustlers, saying there has to be someone in this regime to fight for hustlers who elected this regime, we have to situate the issue broadly.

Is the senator really fighting for the hustlers who elected this regime, or is it a question of a loot shared without him at the table? To a large extent, the veracity of such allegations just like the intentions of the senator cannot be ascertain. But the one thing Kenyans would want to know is the truth. To this end, the biggest favour the senator has made is not necessarily his self-proclaimed assertion that he is a defender of the hustlers (he is probably not), but his public pronouncement of these grand allegations of $100 million oiling the hands of individuals in government is now a public interest issue. We now hold him to commit to prove these allegations and most importantly commit to acting in the interest of the hustlers.

The figures bandied are serious and as Kenyans we have a reason to seriously care about corruption, especially allegations of contractors doing business with government oiling the hands of the people we have entrusted to hold public office and judiciously spend our taxes.

Kenyans must come out strongly against budgeted corruption and hold leaders such as Senator Cherargei to commit to act on what they are saying.

But most importantly the leadership of this country need to act decisively on some of these one two many allegations of corruption, if not for themselves, at least for the real hustlers.

– The writer is a PhD candidate in political communication