When elected, selected and appointed leaders become thieves, thugs, and saboteurs of their countries’ economies, they treat the citizenry with unconscionable contempt. They plunder and blunder as if tomorrow does not matter.
Last week a loaded statement, with the signature of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was trending. The observation makes practical sense. It does not matter whether the news was pinned on the Russian.
The statement was rather kind to this power elite. It is when African politicians, and the politically correct, become rich that they seek security for proceeds of impunity in the West. The power elites go berserk when greed captures their consciences. They engage in destructive, conspicuous consumption. Their roaring appetites find actualisation in foreign goods. Thieving Kenyans, and other conceited Africans, have been here since independence.
Citizens of former French colonies head to Paris. Those from former British colonies treat London as their home of choice. They escape to sample the good things of Oxford Street. The US—New York, Washington, and Texas—is their other destination, combining their idea of the best of the English and the French.
The Putin statement described Africa as a ‘cemetery for Africans’. “When an African becomes rich, his bank accounts are in Switzerland. He travels to France for medical treatment. He invests in Germany. He buys from Dubai. He consumes Chinese products. He prays in Rome or Mecca. His children study in Europe. He travels to Canada, USA, and Europe for tourism. When he dies, he will be buried in his native country of Africa. Africa is a cemetery for Africans. How else could a cemetery be developed?”
A few known, and knowable, Kenyans are holding about Sh5 trillion in foreign accounts. The value of the booty goes up and down, depending on the mood and imagination of editors. They sex it up to boost sales. The higher the amount, the bigger the wonder of victims of the plunder that should have developed Africa.
Early this month, it was reported thieving Kenyans have exported Sh15 trillion to lands yonder. The suspects are not hiding their legitimate money; it is proceeds of impunity. When some of these Kenyans die, as they certainly will some day, eulogists will not say they are survived by Sh5 billion in a bank account in Monaco. Never shall it be said the thief is survived by Sh900 million in an account in the Isle of Man.
The plunderous power elites forget their mortality when they loot their countries’ resources. Or when they build 28-bedroom palaces, with revolving restaurants, in devastated villages.
In the out-of-the-way village of Gbadolite lies the ruins of plunder of a devastated African country. No one lives in the palace any more. The owners fled in shame.
Gbadolite is not familiar to many Kenyans. It shouldn’t be because nothing happens there any more. The images of lions that once dotted the palace are forlorn. The swimming pool was vandalised. The ruined palace is an absurd reminder of a time when the supreme lived to loot. But birds, oblivious of their location’s history, still chirp in the nearby bushes. Bats run the place. The fungi-dressed palace is a desolate reminder of a foregone era of anarchy and plunder of the State that was once Zaire. Democratic Republic of Congo rues the betrayal. But the pilferage did not teach African leaders anything.
Joseph Desire Mobutu owned the palace – Gbadolite – a monument of plunder of a poor country. Mobutu, who reigned 21 years ago in Zaire as president, wasted $400 million (Sh41 billion) of public money to build Gbadolite. The owner of the ruins fled through the window when Zaireans could not take it any more. He died of shame and solitude, and was buried in a foreign land. Even his dead body wasn’t wanted in Zaire.
Latter-day versions of Gbadolite are sprouting across Kenya, thanks to runaway plunder of devolved funds. Proceeds of impunity in Nairobi have also built Gbadolites across Kenya. Bats live in the mansions, which are useful occasionally when the owners tour their cemeteries.