Indifference to other people’s welfare rank high on our list of national values

The Sarit Centre in Westlands, Nairobi should teem with posters of apologies, because of ongoing construction and the attendant commotion. The ground floor and the parking area are pure madness. You don’t know how to get in or out. It is cement, dirt, mortar, clatter and all. But nobody considers that customers are owed even a polite pretext at contrition. After all they are expanding and sprucing up the place for your future good. What is a little inconvenience to the customer, even as sand and cement mess you up from all directions? What does it matter that the parking space is a confused labyrinth?

They are not alone, however. That is the bad news. We don’t know how to say sorry, in this country. We have been taught bad manners, from the cradle. The strong don’t apologise. Only the weak do. And those privileged to own malls are strong. They should not say sorry. That’s for poor folk. And so, elsewhere, I have come across people reconstructing foyers and lift areas in an ultra modern building in Westlands. By the time you have walked through the messy debris on the floor, you are ready to soil carpets of the offices you are visiting upstairs. But what does it matter? The owners of this place are sprucing it up. Those disturbed can jump into the sea.