Ahoi fellow Vasotho. I am back from my sojourn in Kenya or the land of Maasai after monitoring the elections there. I spent a good five weeks there during which I had what the Moroccans call a mukta (a marriage of convenience during a period away from home to avoid being starved of conjugal needs). But that’s not the reason for my delay returning home. The delay is because I was so disappointed with the outcome of the Kenyan elections. So I ended up loitering along the Rift Valley, socking my sorrows in Kilimanjaro lager.
I had hoped it would be fifth time luck for Raila Odinga, the son of Kenya’s first vice president, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga.
Raila Odinga has a solid history of fighting for democracy in Kenya and Africa. He graced our shores during our own umpteenth elections – which returned Ntate Mosisili to power in 2015. He gave us invaluable advice about how to manage ourselves. Odinga’s advice later formed the basis of SADC’s intervention and recommendations, resulting in the passing of the Omnibus Bill last week to help save us from ourselves. It’s sad Leketho Ntsukunyane and others are now inexplicably fighting the King’s decree last week. More about that later.
That Kenyan politics are dominated by crooks, thieves and scumbags is a matter of public record. Still Odinga made a better thief than the winner of the elections, one William Ruto of the Kenya Kwanza (Kenya First) alliance.
Politics is funny. Really funny. How Kenyans can decide to entrust their entire treasury in a celebrated crook is beyond all reason. Ruto has openly spoken about his impoverished past; how he used to fry and sell chicken gizzards at bus stops to get by; how he wore his first ever pair of shoes at age 15. But as soon as he joined politics, as a protégé of Daniel Arap Moi, the father of all thieves, he became filthy rich. He is now a dollar billionaire owning plush hotels, vast swathes of land, profitable companies, helicopters and Lamborghinis that would even make Elon Musk green with envy. No Kenyan seemed to have had any interest in asking how this man acquired all this wealth. Evidence is there that Ruto plundered the state when he served as a minister in various administrations. He has court judgments against his thievery. It should perhaps not be surprising that he chose one Rigathi Gachagua as his vice president.
Gachagua is not only an ordinary crook, he is a certified thief. He even looks like one. He is currently on trial for stealing more than $65 million (about M1,2 billion) from the Kenyan fiscus. How a man on trial for such a heinous crime can be allowed to stand in a national election (not as an ordinary MP but as a vice president) boggles the mind. But just like in Lesotho, and elsewhere in Africa, anything and everything is possible in Kenya.
By electing Ruto and Gachagua, the Kenyans have made their bed, they must now lie in it. The Kenyan elections are a microcosm of why Africa will remain a perennial laggard. Africans are mediocre in their choice of voters. We elect mediocre and unintelligent thieves. We then blame the West for our squalor. We don’t like intelligent crooks. That’s why we are the poorest continent yet endowed with massive resources. An intelligent crook will draw a 10 percent bribe from a road contract while ensuring the road is actually built. A dumb and unintelligent crook like Ruto will steal everything, with no road constructed. As long as we stick to characters like Ruto, we are doomed. I will leave you to draw your own comparisons between Ruto and our own local crooks.
While getting disappointed in Kenya, I never lost sight of developments at home, mainly through the e-edition of the Lesotho Times. Anyone who is serious about keeping themselves informed must subscribe to the e-edition of the Lesotho Times. You can even go to Jupiter but remain informed as long as you subscribe to this all too important national read of His Majesty’s Majestic Kingdom.
The report that stuck out during my Kenyan sojourn was the headline interview with the indefatigable Selibe Mochoboroane, the Minister of Development Planning and leader of MEC.
The headline story in Volume 15 Issue 20 (18 to 24 August 2022) must be compulsory reading for every Mosotho interested in knowing why this country remains a byword for perennial squalor. It must also be in the referral archives of every student of economics or development studies.
In the interview Ntate Mochoboroane discloses how Basotho are losing hundreds of millions in cost escalations charged for delayed or uncompleted projects. He attributes this to industrial scale corruption in the Kingdom. I salute Ntate Mochoboroane for speaking so candidly and honestly against the government he is still part of. Of course the rot is not a result of the incompetence of this government alone, but all its predecessors. Still, the Majoro coalition takes some flack.
It takes balls of steel to criticise a government that you are still part of. But that explains Ntate Mochoboroane, a very honourable and principled man.
In the interview, he spoke boldly about how corruption, incompetence, thievery and lack of political will were contributing to the humungous losses to the fiscus because of these unnecessary cost escalations. All this is money that could be invested in clean water, toilets, schools and hospitals.
Some of the projects he cited are the national museum and the new palace for His Majesty. As I read the article, it got me thinking of the uncompleted upgrade of the Maseru Bridge Border post. This is the main entry point into the country. Yet no one seems to care about the embarrassment that is being caused to this country by the failure to complete this basic upgrade. That is what happens when someone, somewhere is eating. They have no interest in having any project completed. The more the project prolongs, the more they eat, via corrupt escalations and invoicing.
After his appointment to cabinet in 2020, Ntate Mochoboroane said he toured the country to assess the state of government projects. That was the best thing to do. That is what any responsible minister ought to have done. He did not think about outstanding projects to get invoiced for his own pocket cut.
But he first thought of establishing whether or not Basotho taxpayers were indeed getting what they were paying for. He established that many of the projects taxpayers get invoiced for are in fact a hoax. Many stand uncompleted despite having been started as way back as 2011. Those that are completed remain while elephants. For instance, the M70 million state of the art sports facility (High-Altitude Centre) at Thaba-Putsoa remains a white elephant 10 years on.
The High Court in Leribe had stood as another white elephant until its recent handover. I don’t know why criminals – who have laid siege on the country – did not just seize it and convert it into their operational HQ.
What caused me most goose bumps was Ntate Mochoboroane’s revelation of a school abandoned at window level in Semonkong way back in 2011.
“The Education and Training ministry was not even aware that they had such a school on their books until I visited it and brought the matter to their attention…….,” the MEC leader lamented.
This alone got me asking; Do we actually have a real government in this country? Have we actually ever had a real government or just like Kenya- a collection of thieves masquerading as coalitions?
“Corruption will not go away as long as we don’t have a leadership that is willing to admit that we have a problem (of corruption) that needs to be tackled,” added Ntate Mochoboroane. He is absolutely right to decry the fact that there is no accountability in the government and that nobody cares about following up on projects to ensure their completion?
Imagine this other strange case of bewildering incompetence cited by Ntate Mochoboroane. The government incurs a loan of M700 Million to procure industrial machines from the Export Import Bank of India for job creation and youth empowerment during the 2012-2015 coalition.
The machines are then dumped at Mt Moorosi, Pela-Tšoeu and Thaba-Tseka to deteriorate with no one to use them. In the meantime, the M700 million loan must be serviced. What hooey and bunkum is that?
All this is in addition to the theft of M6,16 billion in the 2020/21 financial year as disclosed by Auditor General, Monica Besetsa.
For once, I am in agreement with Ntate Teboho Mojapela of the Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) fame that officials responsible for such grand theft or dereliction of duty must be hanged China style.
It’s a pity that we don’t have many politicians of Ntate Mochoboroane’s calibre. He is an example of the type of leader this country badly needs. But I can almost guarantee that just as in Kenya, our voters will not be looking at politicians of Ntate Mochoboroane’s calibre when they cast ballots on 7 October 2022. They will run into the arms of certified crooks like William Ruto and his partner in aggravated crimes; Rigathi Gachagua. Then blame their woes on everyone else but themselves. The sooner we wake up the better. We need more Mochoborooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooanes.
What the hell is Ntsukunyane up to…
What in this world does Lekhetho Ntsukunyane think he is doing. He is supposed to be representing the media and defending our interests as head of MISA. But when he is not attacking the very same journalists ( like Yours Truly in particular) whom he is supposed to be representing. He is launching frivolous court applications trying to reverse the all important and much delayed Omnibus Bill to effect a rafter of constitutional amendments required to lay the foundation for Lesotho’s movement to the promised land.
The brainy woman in me cannot understand what business Ntate Ntsukunyane has in trying to reverse a reforms process that is critical to restoring sanity in this Kingdom and that is running way behind schedule? Since when has that become the mandate of MISA? Where is Ntate Ntsukunyane getting money to waste on such a dubious legal venture? Doesn’t he know as journalists we are so poorly paid that he is better of splurging the money on us at Ulala (for some rare lamb chops and even the cheapest quality Tassenberg wine) instead of fighting His Majesty? His Majesty has assented to the Omnibus Bill. Period. This country badly needs that law.
I don’t particularly mind the Law Society and other charlatans trying to challenge the process leading to His Majesty’s enactment of this important Omnibus Bill. After all, these are charlatan “lawyers” and raising frivolous litigation is their sworn game. They also don’t have much to do with their dim lives. But for Ntate Ntsukunyane to join them in fighting His Majesty is deplorable and unacceptable. He should be preoccupied with the media rights agenda. And who gave him the mandate to seek to reverse His Majesty’s lawful gazette. Even though I have been in Kenya, he did not consult me. The sooner Ntate Ntsukunyane withdraws his slime petition the better. Otherwise the judges must just use if for toilet paper. I was at the High Court the other day and was astounded to establish the bankrupt Majoro government can no longer afford to put tissue in the bathrooms there. Ntsukunyane’s paperwork comes in handy. A vote on no confidence in his leadership is now almost inevitable. His priorities are misplaced. He should join politics full time ( and represent the White Horse party) in October.
All those aggrieved at the passing of the Omnibus Bill are missing one crucial point. Processes do matter but not always. The fact is that Lesotho has always been in circumstances requiring a state of emergency declaration. As long as we have demented and vacuous headed MPs in our legislature and in government, as long as we have governments that appoint contractors and then immediately forget those engagements while paying them hefty sums for no actual work, then we have always been in want of a state of emergency.
Yes, the incompetence of Parliament in it having to be recalled to do its job via a state of emergency is worrisome. We need to archive that worry for now in favour of promoting and highlighting the good things in the Omnibus Bill. This new law at least imposes term limits so that we never have another Leabua again. It fosters institutional accountability and independence by trying to remove the management of key institutions from the prime minister’s office. It has a few good points.
It sadly does not give the King powers to run the armed forces as originally proposed so that we don’t risk ever having another Kamoli again. That is its biggest flaw. And that is what Ntate Ntsukunyane should be highlighting instead of wasting resources on a preposterous and frivolous application process to reverse His Majesty’s venerable gazette. Whoever is giving Ntate Ntsukunyane moolah to pursue this nonsense, please stop it.
Ache!!!
