The merchants of death in our midst

I hold the radical view that you don't have to kill someone with a weapon or by poison to be a murderer.

In the same breath you don't have to know the people who died because of your decisions, indecision, inaction or even complicity to belong to the list of murderers.

You don't even have to be charged to qualify as one.

Take the case of county and urban authorities, or even jua kali and briefcase contractors, who set up bumps on our roads.

First, there is no warning as you are approaching one. Two, they do not mark them with reflective paint for new users to see them from far.

Three, the shapes of the bumps are horrifying, some in fact are mountains that scrape the bellies of all cars except those of waheshimiwa.

We have no standards. Where is KURA and KENHA? Some are just mounds of soil mixed with stones or tar and rubble.

Unfortunately, there are no statistics on deaths from this negligence by those in authority, but even if they kill ten people daily, those are victims of murder, only that we sugarcoat the tragedy as road accidents.

Shame on the roads and regional authorities, you guys have blood dripping from your hands.

Then we take the joke too far and allow buildings to come up without meeting the required safety standards.

They have no lifts, the staircases are narrow and beds and cupboards have to be hoisted using ropes to the upper floors.

We saw the level of negligence in the case of the Libra House fire when ten Kenyans locked inside a factory from outside suffered an excruciating death by fire and suffocation.

Some buildings are hurriedly put up in pursuit of profits, and collapse halfway, killing poor labourers chasing Sh200!

When you survive the bumps then you have to jump the hurdle of pollution and filth all around you, including in some places, flying toilets. Nowhere is this clearer than at the Eldama Ravine-Kabarnet Road.

At the exit from Nakuru, the county government has not removed the dump site by the roadside. Even if for tourists' sake because we seem to care for them more, then we need to clean up this spot because it is the touristic artery to the wonderful sites in the Rift Valley such as Lake Bogoria and Lake Baringo.

Nairobi is legendary for uncollected garbage and many are the rivers serving as sewer lines.

In industrial areas of our towns just look at the thickness and frequency of black and pungent smoke rising to the skies unchecked, which we later breathe.

This neglect turns to murder when you look at the number of children and adults dying of respiratory and waterborne diseases. So this is another set of murderers!

Yes, there are hospitals with angels of deaths.

Either Government officials or hospital staff who steal drugs and equipment or medical teams that spend more time doing private business instead of responding to emergencies.

You see children dying of malaria on the waiting benches as their mothers queue! Guys, if these chaps are not murderers, the word has lost meaning.

Indeed, they include those who siphon the money that should have either equipped or put up new hospitals!

Then there are deaths caused by security officers under the cluster of extra-judicial killings.

There are cases where police have to kill in self-defense. But how many times have we heard about young men arrested, made to kneel and then bullets pumped into them by policemen whose consciences died long ago.

They kill the innocent during the day and in the evening brag in nyama choma joints as if this has some sort of bonga points reward system based on each life snuffed out.

This crime continues because by not punishing them hard, we have inadvertently given them the licence to kill, and for truth's sake, no one is safe if this issue is not addressed for what it is. Murder.

Then there are deaths caused by merchants of corruption; cases include the sad fate that befell Joseph Cheptarus in 2011.

The former KRA employee's only 'crime' was declining a Sh5 million bribe to turn his eyes away from a gold-smuggling scheme.

Many others are sacked and forced into early death by the hand of frustration.

Corruption kills big and it may even take the country down. This is why we should treat perpetrators of the crimes as murderers.

Yes, the public monies lost would have built schools and hospitals and even freed resources to feed those who die of hunger in our country 50 years after Independence.

In this case, each time you take a bribe, may the image of a coffin come to your mind because you have sold your soul.

Finally, our politics kills too. Just consider the hundreds of people killed at the behest of our politicians.

Yes, all cases of post-election violence have a direct trajectory to political incitement and fanning of the evil spirits of tribal jingoism.

Now, do your math on the number of murderers jostling for space in our political arena and national leadership.

Probably the clean ones will fit into a 14-seater van.