Trap of easy money pushing our girls to drugs, death leaving us to fight their battles beginning with hashtags

Floviance Razan Owino. That is the name of the young Kenyan woman, a mother of a three-year-old girl, who has been in a Chinese jail for two years and is likely to be hanged for drug trafficking.

It is an eerily familiar story.

Kenyans have been jailed in China and other Asian countries before for similar charges. The storyline is familiar.

A young, vulnerable Kenyan gets involved with a Colombian drug dealer or a man from West Africa - mostly Nigeria. They party, she is in a roll.

But the money they are partying on does not grow on trees.

Soon, she is on an assignment to deliver drugs, carried in her body through any of her bodily orifices, or if  being delivered to a corrupt country, in her luggage.

The first few times work like magic and she becomes an overnight millionaire.

That is very addictive, because when you get into drug trafficking, there is no going back. You get hooked to the drugs and lifestyle.

Easy money has a way of fooling individuals that they are invincible.

However, unlike our country where public cemeteries and school playgrounds can be grabbed, some countries have serious working systems.

Sooner rather than later, the law always catches up with you.

Once arrested, Kenyans will take a cue from the government and create a hashtag. Even though there is enough evidence that hashtags do not stop corruption, poaching, land-grabbing or abuse of office, they will still do it.

Kenya is a poor, corrupt country highly indebted to China.

While a regional behemoth, outside East Africa, we lack influence to start a diplomatic tiff with China.

We can only grumble about the Chinese’ hand in poaching, their racist ban of Kenyans into their restaurant, a few minutes’ drive from State House and their involvement in cybercrime from the comfort of a leafy suburb.

But the Chinese never give a damn about anything, as long as they can sell their products and push their ideology.

However, though China and some Asian countries may be corrupt, they occasionally throw some big shots into jail, and some even get hanged.

In Japan, those implicated in serious crimes have the option of redeeming themselves by committing suicide (honour deaths).

But we are a corrupt country with no values whatsoever. Coupled with our poverty and unemployment, the youth have never been more vulnerable.

Worse, we are born with a special form of greed that makes Tanzanians shudder at the thought of doing business with us. The youth grow looking up to an older generation that raids government coffers with unbridled greed. Robbed of all opportunities to make an honest living, they take up anything that comes their way.

Enter the Nigerians and their creative ways of making a quick buck, and they deserve a medal for their scheming ways! They have screwed the lives of many young Kenyans.

I know a young man, Shem, who was my campus classmate. He was one of the brightest and shrewdest chaps in Kenya. He is now a zombie. A womaniser back then, now he is not sure of his sexual orientation. I just hope he can be redeemed.

I know of another maths genius. Raphael is his name.

He is now rotting in an Ethiopian jail for pushing drugs. I know several others who claim to be in import businesses, but Norah, my mum, didn’t give birth to a fool. I know what they are up to. May be they will escape the law. Many never do.

So, my advice to young Kenyans is: let us embrace hard work and honest living. Forget the political class.

May be you will make it there. Or you will get a board appointment at the tender age of 70! But work hard.

Nonetheless, we pray for Floviance. God might hear our cries and save her from the hangman’s noose. Please ladies, avoid West Africa men who look and sound dubious.