Nairobi, Kenya – Wednesday, 27th October 2021. The fight against corruption in the country got a shot in the arm with the official launch of The Blue Company Project. A first of its kind in the country, the initiative seeks to bring together conscientious private sector players to collaborate by creating awareness on the adverse effects of the social vice to the Kenyan society.
Mooted in 2018, the ambitious project is the brainchild of entrepreneur Mr. Nizar Juma and currently comprises of hundreds of certified members drawn from a wide spectrum of private sector players including Manufacturing, Education, Agriculture, Hospitality, Insurance, Sports, Entertainment, Banking and Financial Services. The initiative is premised on the fact that in Kenya today, corruption is the single biggest threat to national development that shakes the backbone of any society. Left untreated for so long, it has grown like a tumor spreading, tearing, and eating away the fiber of society in our country.
Speaking during the official unveiling ceremony of the initiative, Mr. Juma noted that more than a matter of need, corruption has become a subculture, a common practice, an accepted evil. Faced with this quandary people have grown used to it, making it part of their everyday life. “Our children are growing up, accepting corruption to be a normal and acceptable phenomenon. The fight needs to start at the family level, where parents become role models for their children and by helping to make the term “Corruption Free” fashionable through their action and behavior,” Mr. Juma noted.
Mr. Jacque De Navacelle, a member of the Advisory Board gave an example of Singapore and its anti-corruption efforts noted that the society becomes corruption free where people with high quality of mind and thoughts become the majority. If those people come forward to build a strong nation, the dream of a corruption free society is never far away.
Senior Counsel George Oraro, an Advisory Board Member noted that left unattended, corruption has spread to the far echelons of our country, directly and indirectly affecting many facets of life, regardless of age, religion, social status or gender. “Whether one is directly participating in it and involved in its machinations or one is merely victimized by its effects, it has become a blight on us all,” Mr. Oraro noted.
Speaking during the function Dr. Julius insisted that the a conversation must be made to tame away corrupt. “We are starting a conversation that sits at the heart of our existence as a nation. It needs no magic to realize that corruption takes away equal opportunity and hurts growth by consuming funds which could otherwise have gone into impactful projects within the society. Let us therefore stand to be counted as pioneers in laying the ground for the fight against corruption,” Dr. Julius noted.
