Open letter to Kenyans: We Can’t Demand Good Leadership While Defending Corruption!

I write this letter not from a place of anger, but from deep sorrow and confusion. I have watched you, my fellow citizens, raise your voices for justice, cry foul over corruption, and demand better leadership.

Yet, I also see the same citizens turn around and defend the very people who are called out by independent institutions like the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).

I ask with a heavy heart: Whose side are you on? Are you for the citizens, the suffering, unemployed, overtaxed, under-served people of this nation, or are you for the corrupt elite who have mastered the art of exploiting your poverty to buy your loyalty?

Every time EACC moves to question or arrest a public officer on allegations of corruption, we expect a national conversation on accountability.

But what we often get is a tribal mobilization, politically-fueled protests, and citizens defending their ‘own’ without giving the process room to unfold. It baffles me.

Take the recent arrest of Kiambu Governor Kimani Wamatangi.

Within minutes of the news breaking, citizens, some of whom may have gone for days without clean water or proper healthcare in Kiambu, were out in the streets protesting in his defence. Shouting that he’s innocent. Declaring that it’s a political witch-hunt.

But how do you know? Have you investigated? Have you seen the files? Or are you just quick to defend because the person under scrutiny is from your tribe, party, or gives you handouts?

This is a pattern that has become dangerously normalized. From governors to MPs, from cabinet secretaries to junior officers, whenever EACC or any other investigative agency acts, the knee-jerk reaction is to resist. And often, it’s not the politicians themselves doing the resisting. It’s you the people.

So I ask again: Are we truly committed to ending corruption, or do we just hate corruption when it comes from the other side of the political divide?

Do we want leaders who are transparent and accountable, or are we just pretending online while cheering the looting offline?

We cannot say we want good governance and yet actively sabotage the very mechanisms that are supposed to deliver it. We cannot decry the high cost of living and then shield those alleged to have misappropriated public funds.

We cannot demand that leaders put citizens first, then turn around and support those who steal from our coffers because they “helped build a church” or “paid school fees for someone.”

True patriotism is not measured by how loud we defend our tribes or political affiliations.

True patriotism is shown when we put the interests of the country above personal or ethnic loyalty. It is shown when we allow institutions to do their work, and when we demand justice regardless of who is involved.

Let us stop being selective in our outrage. Let us be consistent in our call for integrity. Let us not shield corruption with tribalism or politics. If a leader is clean, let the investigations prove it, not the loud cries of supporters on the streets.

Until we, the people, develop the mental and moral strength to stand up for what is right regardless of who is involved, we will never see the leadership we so desperately long for.

It is not enough to demand better, we must be better. And that begins with supporting institutions like EACC to do their job without fear, favor, or interference.

There’s need for a turnaround, it's time we walk the talk.