The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has moved to court to compel a Meru farmer to account for his state of poverty despite working hard for over 30 years.
In documents seen by PostaMate, EACC wants the farmer to explain how he is unable to afford food, pay school fees for his children, pay for water or even contribute to national taxes despite being in a recognized profession for a very long time. Currently, the net worth of the farmer stands at zero and he is enjoying no status among the zero net worth individuals.
“While it is true that poverty needs no explanation because it is the default state in Kenya, the case of this farmer is baffling. There must be more than meets the eye here because he has worked hard for the last 37 years. We suspect that there are forces working to ensure that he remains trapped in systemic poverty.”
EACC says that it might be the time to force people with unexplained poverty to forfeit the poverty to crypto bros and scammers who are living large and are getting killed for flaunting too much wealth. “It is not fair that people who have perfect opportunity to launder money without any effort are just poor. There should be a way to force them to help those who are suffering from the opposite problem. There should be no room for unexplained poverty.”
Even with rise in food prices, the farmer just gets poorer and EACC notes that the farmer will even be poorer in the next ten years. “This is not a case of economic camouflage as it happens with the cyber-criminals in Juja. It is a state where the farmer has nothing. Even nothing he does not have.”
