To catch a thief

My mother asked me on the phone the other day about whether I see much corruption in my daily work. In answer, I retell a story from a Kikuyu acquaintance in Kenya. Kenya has been known for being relentlessly corrupt, ranking 144 of 158 on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Kenya’s most populous tribe, the Kikuyus, the storyteller notes, are incorrigible thieves.

At the end of 2002, Daniel arap Moi -who had been president since 1978 and saw the country plummet from Great Britain’s formerly prized African colony to a country know predominantly for its violent crime and petty thievery- stepped down and Mwai Kibaki became the country’s third president. Mr. Kibaki ran on an anti-corruption platform backed by a coalition of opposition parties who had been fighting against Moi’s corrupt and oppressive government for years.

Unfortunately, Kibaki’s government slid from attacking corruption to be propped up by it. In late 2004, John Githongo, who became the country’s chief anti-corruption advisor, fled to Britain, having received multiple death threats. This week, Githongo meets with Kenyan government officials at the Kenyan High Commission in London to discuss several corruption scandals which have taken place, including the Goldenberg scandal of the 1990s which cost the country about $1 billion.

The story takes place about 15-20 years ago.

When I was much younger, I worked in a factory making exercise books. When I began, I was paid very poorly and did not have enough to eat. So one day, I stole a package of exercise books for school children. I slid them down the front of my pants when I left the factory and resold them for 20 shillings. The next day, I slid one package of exercise books down the front of my pants and one down the back. It was not long before I was strapping packets to the insides of my trousers with the inner tubes from bicycles and leaving the factory each day with 8 packets of exercise books. I was not worried about getting caught because the owner of the factory was an Indian who particularly liked me.

As time went on, I became a mechanic in charge of taking care of the vehicles and supervising shipments. I began to steal entire cartons of exercise books, which I sold for 1000 shillings each. Then I began to steal tens of cartons.

Finally a Luo and a Kamba (two other fairly populous tribes) who I worked with decided to set me up. Luos and Kambas are hard-working people who do not steal. If you are going to hire workers, you should always hire Luos and Kambas because they will do good work. A Kikuyu will just steal from you.

The Luo called the Indian factory owner over when we were loading the vehicles for delivery and pointed out that there was excess stock. He accused me of stealing the cartons. Our boss, who still liked me very much asked me if I was stealing the cartons. I spoke to him. “What do you think someone would do if he wanted me to lose me job?”

Our boss asked the Luo and the Kamba to go home and think about whether they were sure of what happened. They both lost their jobs.

I stayed at the factory for several years longer and eventually left. Several years later the owner himself torched the factory and fled. He left with 800,000 shillings of the Kenyan government’s money, which he had stolen as part of the Goldenberg scandal.

I have not stolen anything since.