In the Eyes of a Kenyan Country Man; The Case of Corruption.

My country Kenya is beautiful and rich with good people. Let us judge everyone on an individual basis. Photo courtesy of kenyarep-jp.com

Last week, I watched with a lot of dismay as my country Kenya was being described by a white man and I felt the pain cut down my spine. I asked myself several questions about my identity and responsibility as a Kenyan and realized that there must be a price to pay.

Whatever the guy was saying was a bitter truth for sure. The most irritating thing is that the few bad people who do stupid things end up painting a bad picture in the faces of visitors about the many of us who are good. And when they go back to their home countries, the gospel is simple, Kenyans are bad.

And you, as well as me know that we have a lot of people who are good in this country. Probably, you who are reading this article are among the good people but trust me, the few bad ones have sold our destinies for a cent in the name of liberating themselves.

Imagine an individual travelling all the way from the US to come and do charity work. His mission was simple, to come and drill water for our needy brothers and sisters in places where water is more valuable to them than money.

Instead of behaving like people with a conscience, we went ahead and set every obstacle to ensure the water would not drilled. We seem to be enemies of the good that comes to us. And that is why the bad continues to flourish because our ‘bad’ brothers meet their ‘worse’ counterparts who come and cut a better deal which leaves our mafia looking like fools.

Imagine frustrating someone who comes to drill water for our unfortunate countrymen in charity work. They come to help because we have become too lazy to think for ourselves. Even when they think for us, we become very hostile saying we are not beggars. Years later things are just the same.

It is the story of a guy who is stuck in the mud with their small car. And a guy with a four-wheel drive comes by and goes through the mud himself without a problem and then decides to pull the stuck guy out. Unfortunately, the stuck guy becomes very abusive and says he doesn’t need the help. The helper goes his way and when he passes the same road the next day, the guy is still stuck there.

And that is what we have perfected. Someone comes to help and we ask them to pay for them to help us. What a weird story. I have realized that our corruption rating out there is ‘very good.’ You say you are a Kenyan and people raise their eyes to marvel at the guys who have perfected the art of evil.

I thought the guys had every script of our history until I heard that Nigeria is even worse than us. From my point as a Kenyan, I didn’t smile because at least there was someone worse than us, nay. In fact, I shed two more tears wondering when will we ever do ourselves justice as a continent.

If we are going to turn help aside, at least we should be doing something towards fighting the corruption pandemic more aggressively. Someone would say that we are trying but the truth is that for every one step we take forward, we take two steps backward.

We have witnessed increased levels of corruption for some time now. It is not a secret that we even see these cases every day in our routine work. Right in our every eye, we have sanitized the habits of corruption from our very homes to the roads we use every day.

 We then glorify the corrupt and sing praises to them. Simply said, we are as corrupt as them only that we have not had an opportunity to exercise it ourselves. And to make matters worse, we behave as dogs. We sleep on the grass and say we can’t bark or we cannot bite.

Now when you try to be the good guy among the bad guys, you are turned into an enemy. I watched a documentary titled, ‘How We Became Billionaires.’ In it, one of the guys, Naveen Jain, spoke about growing up in rural India because his father had been transferred there for declining to money when being corrupted in the city.

We resonate with them on this. Should you play the good boy, you are turned into a sacrificial lamb and that is why I said that we need a cost if we are to be liberated. And that is for those who are willing to pay that hefty prize however costly it is to ensure we are free at last.

In that discussion last week, I saw the crew sarcastically say that Kenya is very corrupt yet it is over 85% Christian. In other words, we are seen as a bunch of hypocrites. What a pity for those good citizens who play their part faithfully and diligently.

Now the implication that such talks are having on us is that whenever we travel out of this country, most certainly we are branded as people who cannot be trusted. Whenever we find ourselves in foreign countries, we better take care because we might be marked as dangerous wheeler-dealers. 

 Let me conclude by urging all and sundry that in as much as we are from Kenya, let us be judged on the scales of personal integrity and dignity. That way we shall serve justice in the platter of both parties. It is true that everywhere we have both good and bad people.

It doesn’t matter whether it is in America, Asia or Europe, we have bad people there as well. Now that we seem to be having a few more bad people and who are a bit too much doesn’t mean we use them as a base standard for all Kenyans.

As a countryman of this lovely country called Kenya, I know a lot of great men and women who are adorable statesmen. It’s on their behalf I speak this day. Yet still it is to them I give this rallying call in utmost solemnity.

That we should double our efforts to ensure we fight this chronic pandemic called corruption. It is unhealthy and bad for us and to us. It is the reason we are wallowing in misery and unending problems. We either choose to continue this way or do something and change the situation. The choice is personal. But for me, I already chose to double my efforts in the fight against corruption.

End

Copyright@2021

Geoffrey Ndege

Geoffrey Ndege

Geoffrey Ndege is the Editor and topical contributor for the Daily Focus. He writes in the areas of Science, Manufacturing, Technology, Innovation, Governance, Management and International Emerging Issues. For featuring, promotions or support, reach out to us at info@dailyfocus.co.ke
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