Why Kenyans always dread scrutiny of Government-issued documents

By now, practically everyone with access to a newspaper, TV, radio or the local pub rumourmill knows about the land circus in Karen.

Okay, for the uninitiated, or those who live undea former NSSF managing trustee Jos Konzolo and businessman Da Gama Rose on opposite sides of the battlefield.

Everyone claims ownership and everyone has something or someone to back them up. I wonder why the case of the biblical Solomon and the two mothers comes to mind.

Anyway, last week, the police who were ordered to protect the land from developers said they did not know which boundaries they are supposed to be protecting from invaders.

This could have been because of the sheer size of the land in question, in what must be the country’s most prime area.

But such cases are not new, there are a lot of other cases of people who bought land and thumped their chests at the local pub as proud new land owners.

Title deeds

Only to realise a few months later that some other chap has already built on the land. And they both have ‘valid’ title deeds. Valid in the sense they all seem kosher.

Every local has a patron who realised how fast land can vanish. Holding State issued documents must be something akin to living on the edge, you are not sure if what you have is the real deal or a fancy duplicate.

Picture a chap waltzing into some place, let us say an airline check-in area, and no this is not in reference to anything, it is just an example.

The pretty lady asks you for identification and you hand over a passport or ID card, and as she scrutinises it you are not sure whether to be apprehensive. The mere virtue of the document having been issued through proper channels is not enough to prove its validity.

Proven innocent

Do not be surprised if one day at an airport, you see a Kenyan running out of the building like the Mungiki is after him.

Kenyans are becoming accustomed to being victims and in the case of an encounter with the police, presumed guilty until proven innocent. If Immigration chaps check your very legit document twice you start looking for an escape route.

Once, while returning to the country after a trip abroad, the Immigration officer at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport scrutinised my passport, looked up at me and then back at the document and paused. I could almost feel the rest of the queue boring holes into my back wondering who this quack was.

I on the other hand, was shifting from one leg to the other, a feeling of guilt already creeping over me, I have no idea why. But a Kenyan must be guilty of something or other at any one time, right?