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Before harambee [communal funds drive] was outlawed, blamed for abetting corruption, it was a sure crowd puller in many rural out-posts.
"Tumpigie makofi ya kilo... "the emcee would instruct, "Heeep-heeep! heep-heeeep!" as some urbane man descended the creaky dais after depositing several hundred thousand shillings into a basket.
For the coming weeks, awed villagers would debate their heroes (sheroes were not born yet, and Mama Rainbow was not on the scene yet), and commit to memory the mind-boggling figures that the leaders, "escorted" by their city friends, had raised.
It was rarely revealed that most of the cheques bounced, and that few ever paid up their public pledges. So the schools remained unpaved and windowless, although several harambees would be organised every year towards that realisation.
In the village where we trod barefoot, rushing to school or carrying fodder for the animals, we measured time according to the movement of a tractor from the near-by coffee farm, as the driver delivered, illegally, of course, water or firewood to the manager's many homes.
These, one can say, were days of small-time corruption. But the seeds of corruption had fallen on fertile ground, and would germinate and grow over the years to its present gigantic size.
Come the 1990s, a new generation of politicians and businessmen was born.
They carried fly-whisks and walking sticks, alright, but also had briefcases. Pin-stripe designer suits covered their pot-bellies; fake smiles and blank gazes covered their lies.
These lies transcended election-time pledges, which none of the political class bothered to fulfil. They lied about their wealth, work or family.
As the Silicon Valley was producing computer wizards, Kenya's real talent lay in middle-aged men with no discernible qualification, save for being a politician.
To drive a big car, one had to be a politician; to give huge donations at harambees, one had to be a politician. Political patronage, in a way, is one of the most entrenched practices in this country, and rookie politicians learn before long they cannot survive without some patron.
Businessmen long realised that they, too, needed some wing to hide under, as long as they could break even after paying hefty percentage to the provident politician.
This combination of calculating businessmen and avaricious politicians are to blame for the mess that Kenya is in today. The Goldenberg scandal may have epitomised this culture, but then, there is the dossier that British High Commissioner has talked about last week, featuring 20 scandals, and their magnitude are yet to be known.
The trouble with the Kibaki government is that it is peopled by individuals whose single-minded goal is to leave office richer than they started, and the only resources available for exploitation are public resources.
And here belies the greatest irony: the leaders want to take with them something to show for their time in office, when there is absolutely nothing to show in the country's development.
The same politicians have gone ahead to enact legislations that give the suggestion that they are committed to rooting out corruption. The Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes bill introduced in 1998, or the wealth declaration forms introduced in 2003, have offered a convenient smoke-screen that graft is not to be tolerated.
Even Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission was set up last year, not without acrimony. But for every new outfit established, few more more scams are reported, which hints at the growing confidence of the corrupt elements in government.
And since Kenya is a "democracy," aren't the people to blame for keeping those sleazy characters who rob them blind?
Part of the problem lies with Kenyan psyche. They have come to believe that, since leadership is about "eating," it's better to elect a "rich" leader, they argue, since a poor man will eat to his fill before he can allow some morsels to drop to the electorate.
This notion is wrong on two counts: The political leadership in this country seeks to enrich itself by utilising its lofty political positions, then clinging on to power to retain the wealth.
In which case, corruption is a an attractive tool for them, and will remain attractive so as long as they are in power. They cannot end it since they started it, and they continue to benefit from it. It's as simple as that.
Looking for a new kid on the block? Look no further than the august House. He, or perhaps she, need not have a university degree (they undergo a different form of education in their unique discipline), and need not have any experience in formal profession or trade. They just need to be a politicians. And friends of politicians | 
