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Day 1
1 Kings 9:4
“As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws
So we have seen there are cultures with different definitions for stealing. May be you are in a culture where to steal from strangers is normal, not to steal from them is not normal. If you stay in a job and you come out of it poor, they say you have ‘slept on your ears..’..that you are a fool. But that’s not the way we were originally wired as a human being. It is your cultural effect.
A friend of mine started a business in supplying sand to construction sites. He just felt, the construction sites have grown, now that he had bought a lorry and transport has enough money. And he went ahead and he started only to discover you cannot make money in sand. Why? You have to cheat to make money. In other words, you deliver ten tonnes, you call it twelve tonnes. The two tonnes is your profit. He found out that given the cost of transport and the cost of sand, at accepted prices, you cannot make money unless you cheat on the two tonnes. Otherwise they will find your sand too expensive. What they don’t know is what you are calling twelve tonnes … is minus two tonnes. He wonders, since I am a Christian and I want to do the right thing, what do I do? Does he pull out of the business or do like them?
At times we feel like any ethics is too little too late to impact society. And do you know why we feel like that? Think of the story of the boy and the dying fish. The tide came and brought a lot of fish on the sea side. Then they were dying because you know the fish out of the water will die. A small boy got worried because he had learnt in biology they will die. So he started picking one at time and throwing back into the sea. An old man said to him, young boy you are doing nothing. Have you seen that they are too many for your effort? They will die.
The boy told him, it is true they are dying, but this one I am throwing back will not die. He continued throwing them back. Are you getting the point? Our weakness is the feeling that because everybody is doing it, it is useless not to do it…I must also do it.
Do you know what something called critical mass? You start with a few people, after some time you have influenced enough people and they become a critical mass.
Day 2
1 Chronicles 29:17
I know, my God, that you test the heart and are pleased with integrity. All these things I have given willingly and with honest intent. And now I have seen with joy how willingly your people who are here have given to you
In oil industry I encountered many integrity issues. A Japanese construction company bought fuel from us. And it is a difficult thing to deal with them , because of language. You send them a whole tanker of fuel, it reaches the gate, it enters the gate, reaches at the discharge point, then the vehicle doesn’t discharge and instead, it is driven out with the fuel. But all the delivery papers are signed. So when he comes back to Kisumu depot, he has proof that he delivered the fuel to the customer. But he never delivered there, he delivered it somewhere else. It is difficult to catch him since the delivery papers are stamped, everything is stamped.
But later when the Japanese reviewed oil fuel usage they are surprised that their machinery is so inefficient. It is not performing as per requirements and they accuse shell of either wrong quality or quantity delivery. Those are the regular problems of distribution managers in oil industry. And it has to do with the fact that people have wrong values.
Unfortunately even people who claim to be born again still do such things because if they were not doing it they would be branded as traitors, and suffer for it. And without a traitor such will not happen for those things to happen you require collusion.
So if one person questions it, the whole thing stops. But of course they do several things to get your compliance. They threaten to get you fired or, they threaten to kill you. And the Christian says, don’t give me the corrupt money but I will pretend I do not see what you do. So a lot of Christians don’t steal but they don’t want to report anybody stealing. And the stealing continues.
Day 3
Nehemiah 7:2
I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most people do
I can give you case upon case of what that actually has meant in my working life. You cannot be in a Kenyan business and not have to deal with it on a daily basis. Let me start for example right from the day I started working in a development bank immediately I left campus. I told you the salary was two thousand but the bank gave us a house allowance of a thousand shillings in addition. That’s a very high house allowance, for those days for new graduates. But to get that money you needed to produce a receipt to proof you are renting a house.
Obviously there was no problem with getting a receipt with everybody except me. I cannot fake a receipt. I was staying in my sister’s house. So I could fake a rent receipt. I was waiting to find a house to rent. One young man my workmates got so concerned about my not claiming the rent allowance that he talked to me. The bank was in the city centre and I used to go for bible study in Ufungamano House every Friday. Ufungamano House was very new then. He decided to escort me walking there, just to get sense into me.
He argued that the bank does not require you rent a house but just a receipt. It is just something for auditors. And he said to me, you don’t have to go anywhere away to look for the receipt. I was working on the eighteenth floor. He said, you go to the ground floor and get a recipt. The guy who sells newspapers actually has a receipt book. He will just give you the receipt and you walk back and write what you want. It is a funny thing that the employers normally don’t ask more than just the first receipt. When you start paying rent, you give that receipt to HR. After that they don’t ask you for receipts but continue to give you the house allowance.
But I could not bring myself to lie that way. But I told him, ‘I actually need a house but I have not gotten one. The God who actually wants me to get the allowance money will give me a house. He kept talking to me, but just about when we were reaching where Lutheran Church is, before ufungamano house he said, I give up on you. He thought I am too damn to understand that there is no way you can enrich the bank by not claiming what they have already budgeted for. The money is already available.
Day 4
Job 2:3
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
So the issues of integrity don’t begin very far after graduation. They begin right there. And remember that was in 1970s, it is not now. It is worse now. For you to do anything you decide to do, you have to decide to either to bribe or not bribe.
Now, finally I joined Shell and Shell had facility for me to get a car. So they decided to send me to AA to learn, the very best driving school they knew. And I was taught properly. Then when I was about to go for the driving test the trainer tells me, he felt I was ready for the test. But you know how to drive but the problem is you don’t know how to pass… you need to give money that has no receipt I asked, is that different? He said, yes. Those people, if you don’t talk right, they will fail you.
I asked him, you are sure I know how to drive. Yes. Then leave the passing to me. I went, came out of the place onto the road and obviously I failed. Later my trainer told me .., si nilikwambia… I told you. Then those days you could not get a new car without paying a deposit. So the company had to pay a deposit for my car and then we wait for the import. Do you know my car arrived in the country, brand new car, before me passing the test? We parked it at the office. So I booublick**** means yet I know in me I have a brand new car in Shell/BP House at the bottom. My friends would ask what kind of foolishness is this? How can you walk when you have a car? I said the day God wants me to drive; he is going to give me a driving license.
I actually now had to go back and try to repeat the driving test. But unfortunately now I could not go for AA for it needed long term booking. I went for another driving school. But it was so confused so that although I paid five lessons, they kept saying there is no car, but because I had booked the test, I had only done two lessons by the time of the test. I still went without my three lessons being done. And I told my wife, let’s put money aside. If God knows some of the money in our bank account actually belongs to the government who are we to the govern all of it. If He wants us to keep repeating the test we shall continue paying for booking the test until I pass. We had agreed I will start doing the test on a Monday, and I do on Monday I fail, we had now money we had set aside to do on Tuesday, on Wednesday, and until they know I will not give them a single shilling bribe even if they fail me.
Do you know by the grace of God when I went on Monday, I passed. My driving school car was giving trouble starting. I got into the car faster because I didn’t want the examiner to know that my car is not starting. So I came in a hurry, entered and started the engine before the guy came so that it doesn’t embarrass me in his presence. When he came inside he found the car making noise. He said what? You started the car without me and you are a learner? Do you know you can kill somebody just by starting the car? I told him, sir I am very sorry. I agreed with him. You know if you start the car and you don’t know how to break, it can kill others or even you. He just wrote on my paper, failed. I failed without driving at all. He was very annoyed with me. So he took me to the boss. He told the boss, you can’t imagine that this guy who is a learner, even before I came in, he was already started. So I also told my story. My car, was not starting. I was only trying to start not to drive. I agree it is wrong but my intentions were not to drive without being accompanied by a qualified driver.
The boss looked at me and by the grace of God he had favour told the examiner, ‘please still allow him to do the test. So I did a test having already failed, to confirm the fail. Remember he still has the paper with him written failed. So we drove to Pangani. I was able to do whatever he asked me to do.so he had to draw other lines across to say pass? Why? As we drove back, came up the hill after Utalii he said, why were you panicking, you were such a good driver. Why were you doing that? I said, I am sorry sir. He said, what was wrong with you? He just had no alternative than to make me pass. And then the driving school had to refund money three revision lessons not yet used.
It started showing me that if you trust in God, He can actually direct even the corrupt officers to your favour. That’s what gave me courage to be willing to pay the cost for integrity as I started working.
Day5
Psalm 7:8
Let the Lord judge the peoples. Vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness, according to my integrity, O Most High.
When I became distribution manager I am dealing with contractor Asians, Somalis, Africans etc. It is not now once or twice that I had led corrupt issues .It was regular because whenever they heard there is a new distribution manager, they come with, samsontype *** briefcases full of money. So the businessman comes with it, opens and just pulls over, money. All my working life I discovered nobody bribes you with twenty shillings notes. When a hundred was highest, bribes were always a hundred. When five hundred came, bribes were always five hundred. Because you see it is supposed to be small gift kitu kidogo. So in order for the envelope to look small, it must be the highest note. So a thousand came, again the money that was offered to me was always in thousands.
And you have to convince the person you mean no evil when you refuse his gift. Because they believe that if you are not going to take the bribe, you are going to work against them. You will cancel their contract. And I was able to show them over time that I would serve them well despite refusing the gift such that the other day, now in retirement, one of the Somali contractors called me. I said, why are you calling me? He said, ‘I have worked as a contractor for companies, do not imagine that the way you behave is the way other managers behave. I will never forget you’. Of course I have to pray that he gets saved because it is not enough not to forget me. But they tried everything before coming to such a conclusion. One went to Dubai, he comes and brings me new watches, but I still refuse. He tried everything until he discovered when I say I will not take a bribe; his contract is not affected so that I can still look after him well without being paid anything by him. My salary is adequate.
Day 6
Psalm 78:72
And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them
Of course some people go to the other side where they were so annoyed, by my behavior they campaigned for me to be fired because of course if you do something wrong I cancel the contract. Since you don’t bribe me, you also must do the right thing. If you don’t do it I cancel the contract. I cancelled one contract, the guy came to my office, he was a Kikuyu, he told me in vernacular, please understand your children cannot eat when mine are not eating. I told him, I understand what you are saying. And of course it is not difficult for you to do it.Driving a Toyota and your tankers, all they need is to turn tanker aside as I pass and will be dead. So I knew they can do it. But I told him, where you come from, have you ever heard of people say they are saved . Yes. If they told you they are saved, they also tell you that to go to heaven is a very good thing, and the earlier the better. The man walked out of my office. But the point is, we are still friends with that person.
I remember another one who came to my office carrying his gun. You know he was trying to remind me he is not simple. I can tell you, until you are ready to die; there is no way of living a life of integrity.
Remember The first step in the fight to get me compromise was trying to bribe me. The second thing was talk to the people in the board of directors to get rid of me. So they tried to get rid of me, but they found it is not effective. I was not fireable, is that English? That is until God allows it.And they had tried everything to get me fired, that’s where now it ended.
So the next thing is get me killed. And I knew they were not joking. They could actually do it. But then I understood I cannot die earlier than Gods day.
Day 7
Proverbs 10:9
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked paths will be found out
So I can tell you if somebody tells you they are not corrupt and they are not prepared to die, know they are lying. Because once the businessmen, know you are the traitor, rest assured they will kill you. It is only the fact that you risk to die that will allow you to live a life of integrity.
I can now walk everywhere in this town aware that nobody is to shoot me because when they wanted to shoot me they never shot me. And I could give you many, many stories like that. But the first thing I wanted to mention is that fighting corruption is a reality. I have lived with it for more than thirty years of working. I am now a consultant, and the same things arise.
The challenge, as I am giving advice to the oil companies, the challenge is, how will they do it and the government is like this? So I am able to use my history to be able to address the challenges as I advise them.
Thus you will never be a leader of influence until people know you are not a coward. Because what I discovered, especially my Muslim friends, what impressed them was the fact that although, I know this guy cannot bribe me, even the other contractors cannot bribe me. Because once this one bribes me with one million, the other one will give me two million. But he knows I am refusing him and I am also refusing the other one. It became easy to accept my refusal. I had a very easy time with contractors once they knew that I am not only refusing him, I am also refusing bribes from others.
I hope as you read this that you will determine, you are ready to pay the price for integrity because then it will give you the influence that we are discussing if you are going to be a leader of influence.
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