Austerity the Magufuli-Style!

President John Magufuli, known for his tough stand against corruption and wastage of public funds since he came to power in October, last year took another bold move last week when his wife, Mama Janeth got admitted at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

This is the latest lesson on austerity and servant leadership that is frowned upon by our presidents and politicians who never trust the very systems they are mandated to ensure are serving the hoi-polloi.

The public hospital where Tanzania’s most powerful lady got admitted, serves about 1,000 patients daily. A week after Magufuli’s election, he sacked the hospital’s acting managing director after due to the facility’s poor conditions.

Magufuli’s latest act caused a stir on social media as pictures of his visit to check on his wife went viral, in a continent where governments care little about public hospitals because top officials and their families seek private treatment locally or in Europe, Asia and America.

Kenyans, Zambians, Malawians, Nigerians, Zimbabweans know this too well! Their former or current presidents have taken the expensive rides outside Africa seeking treatment, all on the public purse.

African leaders have the dubious distinction of wasting public funds, to reward their families, cronies are political die-hards, all looted from the tax-payer!

From seeking treatment abroad, to upgrading their private homes using the public purse, leadership in Africa is not close to serving its true cause, since greats like Nelson Mandela, Samora Machel, Kwame Nkrumah exited the stage.

In East Africa’s smallest economy, Magufuli is leading by example and making a joke of the leadership norms that most of Africa is accustomed to.

Arguably Tanzania’s best president on his current track record so far, Magufuli is fast redefining the institution of presidency.

Following his ascension to power, Magufuli banned all foreign trips by his government officials, and ordered them to visit their countryside for the harsh truths on the plight of Tanzanians.

In neighboring Kenya, the devolved governments have turned into a shame as colossal amounts of money have been lost by county government officials in foreign trips for bench-marking.

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto also faced criticism for their numerous trips abroad.

Down in South Africa, the continent’s biggest economy, President Jacob Zuma, who is facing numerous graft cases and a political battle to redeem his image, used $23 million to upgrade his private home in Nkandla.

The Treasury ordered him to pay about $500,000 of the money, in a nation where the economy is struggling, at the back of a high unemployment rate and a struggling national currency.

Zimbabwe is one of the continent’s crippling economies, with an unprecedented rate of unemployment and a sky-high inflation rate, yet its octogenarian leader, Robert Mugabe spent $1.1 million on his 92^nd birthday.

The nation is facing a dire food crisis, with about half a million people, nearly a half of the rural population in need of food aid in the coming months due to failed rains.

In Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the longest-serving despot in Africa has turned the nation into a family enterprise, since he came into power in 1979.

The above incidents paint the grim picture of how African presidents abuse power as the rest of population continually sink lower by the day in economic struggles.

It is the most powerful seat the world over and used as an opportunity to improve the socioeconomic and political lives of the masses, but in Africa, it serves to impoverish the millions as an ‘anointed’ few lead lavish lives.

In a continent of few morally-befitting examples, Magufuli is re-writing the script and offers an opportunity to the continent’s next crop of leaders to learn from and make Africa realize its true potential hidden beneath in vast mineral and natural resources.

As African presidents, their families and cronies waste public funds on personal luxuries, about 250 million people go to bed hungry while more than 50 percent of our children below five years die of malnutrition each year!

Austerity can provide funds to deal with the African shame of poverty, and Magufuli is leading the fight!

Gebrselassie To The Rescue

Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopia’s long-distance and marathon running legend is the head of the nation’ s athletics federation, a move that Africa’s former sports persons should emulate to save sports from the ill-management that describes sports federations in most African countries.

Gebrselassie will serve four years at the helm of Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) following his election on Sunday, with an overwhelming nine out of 15 votes, The National reported.

Prior to the Olympics Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in August, the track legend criticized EAF’ s handling of the selection criteria of the team to the games, urging them to resign in the face of doping allegations that hit about five athletes.

In neighboring Kenya, another middle and long distance running giant, despite its Rio exploits, the athletes attended trials in a venue against their wish, some had their Nike kits missing and had to put up with poor accommodation in the course of the games, Daily Nation reported.

The sport is also reeling from a doping crisis that is threatening the hard-earned reputation Kenyan athletes have gained over the years.

In Nigeria, the national Under-23 football team landed in Brazil hours before its opening match against Japan after haphazard travel arrangements saw the team stranded in the US.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) ordered athletes to make travel arrangements to the games, claiming it did not have funds to arrange for their travel, Newsweek reported.

The competition kit for the Nigeria team also arrived barely days to the end of the games in Rio. 

Most of them used kits from past competitions while the football team had its own-sponsored kit.

The above incidents are the norm in most of the sports federations across the continent, where all manner of ills have been disguised as leadership.

Most of the leaders, who have been at the helm for years did not represent their nations in continental or global competitions. They never experienced the pains that face African sports persons face whenever they fly their nations’ flags high.

The federations serve personal and parochial interests at the behest of a few, forgetting the millions of sports talents who never realize their potential due to mismanagement.

Retired athletes like Gebrselassie, Geremi Njitap in Cameroon and Kalusha Bwalya in Zambia have taken up the leadership mantle.

They have been through the African pain in sports and are the realistic chance through which most of the sports federations across the continent will breathe fresh air!

The malaise with the athletics federation in Nigeria and Football Kenya Federation (FKF), largely blamed on officials seeking parochial self-interests at the expense of sporting talent, is a reflection of a disease running deep in several federations across the continent.

It must come to an end and the bold steps by Gebrselassie and Bwalya are in the right direction. 

Retired sportsmen and women in other African countries should embrace the challenge and help current generations avoid the hell they went through in their careers!

Corruption; the Jubilee Legacy!

The nation is yet again licking the pains of corruption after individuals swindled the state of Sh 5 billion, just days after President Uhuru Kenyatta publicly admitted that his government is losing the war on corruption.

People entrusted with providing medical services to the people chose to manipulate the Integrated Financial Management Systems (IFMIS), divert funds and make double payments of goods to enrich themselves on the blood of dying Kenyans and cancer patients who die in their thousands due to lack of cancer treatment every year. 

“As president, if there is one issue that has frustrated, it is this issue (of corruption). And I will say why. Because the pressure is on me,” Nairobi News quoted Kenyatta.

It is a tale of contrasts at the helm of the nation’s leadership. First lady, Margret Kenyatta is leading the noble ‘Beyond Zero Campaign’ that aims to provide mobile clinics to all 47 counties.

At the ministry of Health, those responsible for overseeing the provision of healthcare services have betrayed our trust!

The latest theft, hot on the heels of the Sh 1.8 billion through the National Youth Service (NYS) months ago came after Kenyatta admission of losing the fight.

The scandal at ‘Mafia could present the biggest scandal since the Anglo-Leasing saga in the 1990’s where individuals defrauded the state of about Sh 40 billion. 

The consequences are already dire on the ordinary folk. 

At least At least 27,000 Kenyans cancer patients die each year, while access to quality medical services remains a mirage for most mothers and infants in far-flung parts of the nation.

Corruption has made Kenya the rich man’s society where the affluent seek private medical services that are beyond the reach of the peasants or go abroad, especially the government officials who cannot use the very medical services they claim to be fit for Kenyans!

Kenyans must be worried when the very man who they entrusted the nation’s leadership into admits the war on grand-corruption is one we are losing as few individuals who should otherwise be prosecuted in accordance with the law loot from the public coffers to lead lavish lives.

Lastly Mr. President, corruption describes your government and many would be forgiven for thinking it was one of your election promises!

The inflated diesel-fueled Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is inferior to the recently opened Ethiopia-Djibouti electric railway. 

Our Kenyan project is shorter and costs more than the historic railway linking Ethiopia and Djibouti. Sadly, the concerns on the inflated cost have not been addressed.

The wounds from the NYS scandal have not healed yet the mafias have struck again! Why do you tell us that you are helpless in the face of vicious souls hungry for our taxes?

The country loses about Sh 608 billion to corruption each year! Funds that can help set-up several cancer treatment facilities to ease the burden on the over-worked one at Kenyatta National Hospital, save Kenyans from perennial cases of starvation or build several football stadia fit enough to help groom the nation’s immense sporting talents!

Sadly, there are souls that prefer to loot it all as the rest of hard-working tax-payers fail to enjoy the public services that they pay for!

Mr. President, mega-corruption is fast describing your tenure in office, save your legacy and save Kenya too!

The good thing is that those who loot public funds are highly rewarded with plum political seats by the electorate and never get prosecuted by the courts, instead only bear the little pains of lip service by those who should clobber and sent them to the gallows!

Mashujaa Day or Njaa day

It is yet another Mashujaa Day as President Uhuru Kenyatta leads the nation in celebrating our heroes who shed blood to liberate this great land from the yolk of colonialists.

A day when we shed off our real ukenya skin of corrupt souls, ethnicity and love for cheap politics at least for a day, led by our political class and pretend to profess love for Kenya.

The day when the president talks big in his eagerly-awaited speech and all of a sudden, we feel Kenyan, away from the many self-afflicted wounds that we suffer from.

Yet as Mashujaa Day is marked in Machakos County, where the president has decided to lead the nation from, let us go for a self-examining voyage and seek lasting solutions to our troubles

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Corruption has nearly crippled our economy and the National Youth Service scandal is still fresh, with the suspects walking free after fleecing the public bourse! 

Extra-judicial killings have blotted the name of many of our professional police officers. The chilling murders of Jacob Juma and Willie Kimani, despite the publicity created by both incidents have not seen much light and the wheels of justice are yet to come full cycle! 

The Eurobond affair raised more questions than answers as the government turned it into a public relations game instead of giving answers to the tough questions.

Tribe is still the triumph card in our politics and appointment to public jobs still relies on the pronunciation of your first name!

We are agonizing as a nation because of the three key issues that are fast leading us to destruction.

When today’s political noise goes down and the people of Machakos see off the head of state, we will go back to the real nation where we all take part in ruining a great land!

Can we be true to self and nation and take bold steps to realize the dreams of our fore-fathers who gallantly fought for our freedom, in the hope of seeing future generations lead good lives and realize their dreams?

South Sudan On the Edge

South Sudan, Africa’s newest nation is fast but silently turning out to be one of the worst humanitarian crisis and nearly 60 percent of its 7.5 to 10 million population stare at starvation in the face as a civil war takes toll on the oil-rich nation.

About five million are at risk of death if food supplies do not arrive in time, with Bahr el Ghazal, in north-western part the nation being the worst hit. 

About one-third of the children here are reportedly malnourished, according to media reports.

The nation has for long suffered from food crisis but the ongoing civil war has exacerbated an already dire situation, Al Jazeera reported.

Hostilities from some government officials and rebels have restricted humanitarian aid to the nation in a country where 44 percent of its budget is spend on military, about $4 million per day to wage wars and onslaughts, according to data by Defense one.

The economic and social cost of the war is fast ruining the nation. At least 250 refugees cross into neighboring Uganda, where over-crowing in the camps has led to severe deterioration in living conditions.

Last week, some children died in Arua District in Uganda, despite making a near 50-kilometer treacherous journey through Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), always wary of attacks from militia who roam the paths to ‘freedom’, Voice of America reported.

At least 2,000 refugees are crossing into Uganda daily.

The in-sensitivity that the war-lords in the nation have towards poor civilians who have lost their families to the guns and starvation. 

Most of them are mothers and children, some malnourished and others pregnant and some malnourished and too weak to make the journey that is a must if they wish to live another day.

No respite is in sight and the crisis is turning into a catastrophe by the day. It is dire and something must be done to avert one of the worst humanitarian crisis in modern civilization.

Mothers have tough choices to make on which of their children to save. They chose who to let die and who to help live!

Elizabeth Athiel, a mother in Bahr el Ghazal could not leave take her malnourished eight-month daughter to clinic and leave her other five children behind. The little girl urgently needed medical attention but her mother had an anguishing decision to make, Al Jazeera reported.

Throughout the nation, countless Athiels are faced with such harrowing choices to make. Their children are dying in their arms and those who cross to neighboring Uganda, Kenya and other neighboring live in hell, in deplorable conditions.

The nation’s exiled former deputy president, Riek Machar called for fresh war against the government forces last week, a move that drew condemnation from the international community.

This is perhaps the farthest that the ‘big boys’ are ready to destroy the nation at the expense of the civilians in order to protect their political interests.

On the other end, President Salva Kiir, called for forgiveness as the wounded seeks to get lasting peace. The calls inspire little hope as his majority Dinka-troops and Machar’s Nuer forces cannot see eye to eye. 

The two, one in power and the other viciously fighting to dislodge him hold the answers to solving the problems afflicting Sudan.

Since violence broke out in July near the presidential palace, hundreds have been slaughtered and at least a million displaced. Malnutrition, starvation and health crisis walk hand in hand with the survivors in the refugees camps, both at home and in the neighboring nations.

The nation is one of the poorest in the world, with deplorably poor indicators in health, education and underdevelopment.

The situation is getting dire by the day. Refugees are leaving en masse, people are dying and children are bearing the devastating brunt of the ethnically-fueled violence.

Machar just called for fresh violence!