Deutsche Bank just announced that it will freeze plans to create 250 new jobs in Cary, North Carolina. The bank said that its decision was due to state-wide legislation enacted on March 23 that invalidated the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) citizens in some municipalities and prevents municipalities from adopting such protections in the future.
This decision by the German-based bank is an addition to a growing list of organizations (including the National Basketball Association -- NBA) and individuals such as Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams who have all expressed concern or outright anger over the discriminatory and homophobic legislation and have intimated that they may move or cancel plans to expand or perform in North Carolina as a result.
These organizations and individuals have basically "put their money where their mouth is".
During the same news cycle as the Deutsche Bank announcement, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired a piece that examined the scope and impact of corruption in Kenya. PBS, a publically-funded non-profit news organization and considered one of the most trusted American institution broadcast the expose even as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was approving a new Sh151 billion loan for the country. The approximately $1.35Billion loan from the IMF was in addition to the seven memorandums of understanding President Kenyatta signed with French President François Hollande totaling approximately $250Million the French Government was loaning it (Kenya) "for various projects".
The two preceding loans were extended to a country that was simultaneously borrowing KSh.61B from China to help fund a budget deficit from FY2015 even as it was being warned by the World Bank, IMF's sister organization, that her "huge appetite for Chinese loans risks choking the economy on huge repayment burden".The warning by the World Bank can be chalked up to the stiff competition from the Asian Infrastructure Bank (controlled by China) that is aggressively seeking to act as a counterweight to the hitherto premier international financial institution that offered loans to developing countries. However, taken together, the optics, indeed logic of issuance of additional loans to a demonstrably corrupt government and country calls into question the sincerity of the concerns voiced, by the West in particular, over the pervasiveness of said corruption and poor governance.
The same countries that've repeatedly railed against corruption in Kenya are the same ones pouring billions into the trough that feeds the very vice they've vociferously complained about; whose citizens team up with local (Kenyan) "industrialists" and "moguls" to invest billions in ventures and institutions with dubious fundamentals and shady histories.
That has to stop!
Like Deutsche Bank, NBA, Bruce Springsteen and Bryan Adams, it is time for countries like of France, England, US and individuals like Richard Branson and Flavio Briatore to put their money where their mouth is just like American multi-nationals did when they decided to divest from Apartheid South Africa back in the 60s and 70s.
Instead of providing the metaphorical "drugs" that feed the corruption in Mahali Mzuri (no pun intended), these countries (and corporations such as Coca-Cola, Google and Facebook) and individuals should cut off the supply (aid/money) until the addict (Kenya) demonstrates verifiable and sustained efforts at addressing corruption.
On a side but apt note, Google's erstwhile mantra was -- Don't be evil!
As is the case with drug abuse, if one dealer cuts off an addict who does not want to reform, there is always another dealer willing to provide the high -- for a fee. A China that does not tether her aid to good governance, human rights, democracy or protection of the environment has demonstrated that it is ready and willing to step in and fill the void that would be created by the departing "moralists" i.e. the West.
However, I would offer the following word of caution to Kenyans excited about the "looking east" policy: The same China has been cracking down on those suspected "of serious violations of party discipline and the law" including execution of those convicted of embezzling or accepting bribes.
The fact is: Competition from China should not dissuade the West (America, Gt. Britain. France, Japan, Italy) from standing up for the values it preaches to others about, not if they want to maintain their fast-disappearing vestiges of credibility on the subjects of corruption and good governance.
The silver bullet in the fight against corruption in Kenya is obviously the Kenyan voters:
Until there is a critical mass of voters who believe that corruption and poor governance is a problem, but more importantly, reflect that belief in the choice/s they make at the ballot box, nothing will change despite the presidential speechifying, World Bank/IMF warnings or threats of aid cut-offs by donors.
Until people put their money where their mouth is, corruption will continue unabated in Kenya.