By TEE NGUGI

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In 2015, an MP was shot in Nairobi in the wee hours of the night. As investigators scrambled to find the killers, members of the Parliamentary Committee on Security, that had approved a multimillion-shilling project to install security cameras in Nairobi, were asked whether the cameras worked.

It was hoped that a camera nearby would have captured the shooting. Their answer summarises what ails Kenya. They said they didn’t know. That admission was staggering.

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But what went beyond staggering and entered the realm of absurdity, was that the committee members, including the chairman, continued to serve in the committee.

Let’s pause here for a moment. You commit millions of shillings to a project, and you don’t even bother to check whether it functions as per the terms of reference.

Surely, if the security cameras had been installed in the members’ private homes, they would have checked and rechecked their functionality every day.

First, because they would want the best possible security for themselves and their families. Second, because the money spent on the installation would be theirs. But they couldn’t care less whether the cameras installed in Nairobi worked or not.

What did they care about public safety and public money?

This attitude of officials neglecting their duties and continuing to hold on to their positions is at the heart of what ails Kenya. We are confronted by the deadly symptoms of this illness daily.

Illegal dams will burst their walls and kill tens of people, yet the officials who approved their construction and the minister under whose docket regulation of dams falls, keep their jobs.

Shoddily constructed buildings will collapse and kill tens of people, yet inspectorate and regulatory officials in the relevant ministry will continue drawing exorbitant salaries.

Of course, the minister and his officials will leave a lavish lunch or dinner at a luxurious hotel, rush to the accident site and offer tired platitudes, and prayers for the victims, before waddling to their petrol guzzlers to be ferried back to their hotels to finish their feast.

That will be the end of that matter until the next building claims other lives.

Every year, thousands of people die in car accidents because of poor roads, defective vehicles and police failure to enforce traffic rules.

In March this year, we lost 11 university students in a road accident. Neither the transport officials nor the minister in charge resigned.

The other week, 21 pupils of Hillside Endarasha Academy died in a dormitory inferno. Officials from the ministry’s inspectorate division have not resigned. The minister continues to enjoy largesse at the expense of the taxpayer.

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These are just a few examples of neglect and impunity. The Gen- Z revolution called for the complete overhaul of the Kenyan state.

The overhaul cannot be done by the corrupt Kanu oligarchy that has ruled Kenya since 1963. We need new leadership to avert total state failure.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator