YVONNE'S TAKE: Corruption - Name the owners

Not from a whistleblower. Not from a watchdog agency. Not from a frustrated citizen on the street.

No, this came from the President of the Republic. The head of the Executive. The Commander-in-Chief.

He told us, openly, that Members of Parliament are extorting members of his own government. That some MPs demand payment to write favourable committee reports, or simply to look the other way during Parliamentary inquiries.

This is not just a claim. This is a confirmation, from the highest political office in the land, that corruption isn’t just alive, but it’s thriving in our Parliament.

And when the President himself says it, it moves from rumour to record. From suspicion… to official acknowledgement.

So here is the question that every Kenyan should be asking: What next?

Which MP?

Which committee?

Which member of the Executive was coerced, or paid up? How much money was paid? What is the going rate of corruption in this country?

Who in Parliament is abusing their position to turn oversight into a shakedown?

What will you the President, as party leader of UDA and the Kenya Kwanza coalition, which now includes opposition MPs in its broad-based arrangement, do about it?

What will you the President, as head of the Executive, do to clean up your own government?

Because corruption does not die in the shadows. It thrives there.

And silence, after such a bold accusation, becomes complicity.

We, the people, are already paying the salaries of both the Executive and the Legislature. If there is money changing hands to “look away”, then we are being billed twice, once for the job, and again for the refusal to do it.

It is not enough to simply drop this kind of allegation in passing, without names, without consequences. That is not leadership, it is political theatre.

It is saying just enough to sound bold… but not enough to change anything.

Mr. President, you’ve already broken the silence. Now, break the cycle.

Show us that the fight against corruption is more than a headline.

Prove that integrity can still mean something in public office.

Because in the end, history will not remember the speeches we made about corruption.

It will remember whether we were brave enough to name it, and bold enough to end it.

Well… then perhaps the only thing we’re truly good at naming in this country… is each other’s faults.