3 ways to uproot a culture of corruption Wanjira Mathai
Have you ever been robbed?
Or had something you value
forcibly taken from you
against your will?
It’s violating.
Feelings of fury, of assault
and of helplessness.
That’s what corruption feels like.
Corruption is theft.
It is corrosive,
it is criminal,
it is toxic
and it is predatory.
Now, I’m from Kenya,
and in Kenya, corruption
takes different forms.
I want to share the story
of Karura Forest with you.
This is my hometown of Nairobi.
I love Nairobi. It’s beautiful.
But it is a city of paradoxes.
It is at once beautiful
and challenging.
But at the heart of this beautiful city
that I call home
is Karura Forest,
an oasis of green, expansive beauty that
would be the envy of any city anywhere.
We almost lost
Karura Forest to corruption.
Word has reached
my mother, Wangari Maathai,
that Karura Forest is under attack.
There was a construction site coming up
right in the middle of the forest.
Government officials
had stolen the forest.
They had divided, sold and gifted
hundreds of parcels of Karura
to their friends and cronies.
Now in 1977,
my mother founded the Green Belt Movement
to plant trees across Kenya,
restore green spaces
and protect green spaces,
much like Karura Forest.
She got together her friends and allies,
and together, they created what became
one of the most successful
tree-planting campaigns in the world.
It was therefore no surprise
that when word got to her
that Karura was under attack,
they immediately sprang into action.
They battled police and hired goons
to stop the theft of this forest.
But fortunately, there was
an uprising of support
from the clergy, politicians,
students and the general public,
all of whom came out to say no
to corruption and greed.
And pretty soon, that support
was too strong and intense
for the authorities to subdue.
And Karura Forest was saved.
In the 2000s, I joined my mother
in the Green Belt Movement
and witnessed the growth
of the movement’s advocacy activities,
its expansion beyond Kenya
and an extremely important
growing consensus
around the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
that she received –
that the environment, democracy
and peace were inextricably linked.
I also learned that what my mother
had faced that many years ago
trying to protect Karura Forest
was not an isolated incident.
The corruption and greed
that manifested itself then
is alive and well today,
from greedy politicians
and public servants
willing to loot public coffers
at their expense.
Corruption is everywhere.
Now, corruption is devastating
to any economy, democracy
and the environment.
It robs citizens of vital social services
and renders human life worthless.
When young men are willing
to join gangs
and brutalize their communities
for a small fee,
and women are raped on the way to work,
and, when they report this,
the perpetrators bribe
their way out of jail,
and when young girls
have to sell their bodies
to buy sanitary towels,
you know the society is broken.
In recent years, Kenya has been ranked
amongst the top 10 most corrupt
countries in the world.
Even more frustrating for me
is that Kenya loses
a third of her national budget
to corruption each year.
That is six billion dollars.
It is totally unacceptable.
In a country where anti-corruption efforts
have been frustrated and ignored
and interfered with,
we absolutely need new strategies
for dealing with this vice.
We cannot complain forever.
We either decide
that we’re going to live with it
or we are going to change it.
There’s some good news.
Human beings are not born corrupt.
At some point, these behaviors
are fostered by a culture
that promotes individual gain
over collective progress.
So if we’re going to uproot corruption,
we have got to start
before it ever takes root.
We have got to intervene early.
I don’t know about your country,
but where I come from,
youth will lead us into the future.
In Kenya today, 80 percent
of the population is under the age of 35.
But by their own admission,
they have conflicting values.
Fifty-eight percent of young people
in Kenya recently told us
they will do anything to make money.
An additional 45 percent said
corruption is a legitimate tool
for doing business.
Seventy-three percent
said they would not be willing
to stand up for what they believe in
for fear of retribution.
What I learned from my mother
a few years ago
was this concept of “the power of one” –
that each of us can be
potent agents of change
and that together, we are a force,
that if we put our hands together,
we can change the situation
and no problem is too big.
My mother understood this so profoundly
that it was at the center of her work.
Shifting cultures takes patience,
persistence and commitment,
and it is extremely slow and deep work.
But if we are going to shift a culture,
we have got to get that work started.
And in the time since her passing, we
have established a foundation in her name
to do exactly that
but to work with young people and children
to begin to build character
and personal leadership,
to inspire purpose and integrity.
But fighting corruption is not as easy
as saying corruption is bad.
Now, here are three strategies
that we are employing
that we believe can be replicated
in any school community.
First, we must understand the why:
Why does corruption happen
in the first place?
Do we call it for what it is – theft –
or do we gloss over it with other words?
When young children are able to model
what it looks and feels like
to deal with corruption,
they are likely, when faced
with a dilemma in their future,
to model what they’ve been taught.
Second, we need to teach
character explicitly.
Now, this may seem obvious,
but a child who exhibits a growth mindset
and a sense of self-control
is self-confident.
And a self-confident child is likely
to stand up for what they believe.
Third, we need to build
personal leadership in our children early
to give them an opportunity
to know what it looks like
to call corruption out when they see it,
what it feels like to stand up
and be counted when they’re needed
and, for me, to make the more
and most important connection
between human suffering on one hand
and corruption, greed
and selfishness on the other.
We have got to believe in our capacity
to bring about the future we want to see,
each of us in our small way.
Young people must believe
that a new reality is possible.
Corruption, climate change,
ecosystem collapse, biodiversity loss –
all these issues need leadership.
And in the words of Baba Dioum of Senegal,
“In the final analysis,
we will conserve
only what we love,
we will love
only what we understand
and we will understand
only what we are taught.”
Thank you.
(Applause)