Corruption Leads to Downfall of a Nation

Corruption and greed in leaders always leads to a downfall of a nation. It is not different in Francis Imbuga’s Betrayal in the City where the leaders have greatly contributed to Kafira’s downfall.

 

Corruption has been blamed for many problems affecting the country. Indeed none other than the president has asked some state officers to step aside to facilitate investigations on corrupt related cases. This is because corruption hinders development and hence should be fought.

           

            Mulili’s corrupt trait makes him have the milk tender which was initially Kabito’s. He manipulates Boss into giving him the tender by lying to Boss about Kabito and later, he has him killed. It is only takes a telephone call from the Boss to be given to Mulili. No competitive bidding.  He is also greedy for wealth, he is ready to do anything to get the vast land promised to him by his Cousin Boss. This without a doubt is a quick way to a nation’s collapse.

            Boss who is Kafira’s head is corrupt. He employs expatriates to take up lecturing jobs which causes university students to go on strike since there are qualified citizens who are jobless in Kafira. To hit back, he gets more expatriates. His greed is also portrayed when he hides millions of shillings in foreign countries- he takes everything to his hand- Has ruined the economy of Kafira. He practices nepotism and gives high government positions to incompetent relatives who work as his spies.  These behavior contribute to a fall in a nation.

            Tumbo, a top government official is corrupt, which leads him to let Jusper write the play without having a competition to get a winner as was required to. Jusper is paid 1/3 of the 600 pound billed for the competition. He later says that the rest of the money would be used to ‘set the records’ straight. Tumbo also confesses he never went to university. He sold his scholarship hence somebody got to university through corrupt means. He later says university education is not necessary in this day and age. There opportunities but they do not come on a silver plate. Indeed, he owns two blocks at a cost of sh.150 000. This is greed at its best besides corruption.

            Nicodemus’ act of planting drugs in Mosese’s car is corrupt indeed, particularly when it is meant to implicate an innocent person leading into being jailed just to silence and punish him for no good reason. Also After the announcement of Kabito’s death, he asks if that day would be counted since the meeting was being called off.  He asks.....”What size of potato per hour?” He is also interested in finding out how many days they would use. “How many working days.....” The officials are corrupt thinking of just the wealth to take.

            Askari portrays a corrupt trait when he says that he gave tea to the prisoner Jere who does not belong to his tribe. , ‘Here, tea with milk yet you don’t even belong to my tribe. You need a tall relative to get anything these days’ (pg 27) This shows the high level of corruption, tribalism and nepotism within the government. Only those that have ‘people’ working the in the government are advantaged.

            Indeed corruption and greed leads to the downfall of a nation as has been seen in Kafira. Boss and his