When Pope emeritus Benedict XVI assumed office at the Vatican, one of his most painful acknowledgements was that there were many failures in the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy and transgressions of faithful, saying: “Man sometimes falls to the ‘lowest, vulgar levels’ and sinks ‘into the swamp of sin and dishonesty’.”
Then again, Andrew Ferguson of the Weekly Standard wrote a few years ago that “Journalism is a character defect... It is a life lived at a safe remove: standing off to one side of the parade as it passes, noting its flaws, offering glib and unworkable suggestions for its improvement.”
And today, we run the story of a young parent and university graduate who will, in many of our readers’ scales of opinion, find space for criticism, empathy and sympathy, in equal measure.
The Standard Group shall no doubt find itself the target of recrimination from law enforcement agencies, praise from readers who feel they have got their money’s worth in print and those others that will feel journalists are so far removed from realities and are only reduced to mere archivists of human endeavour.
What is not in doubt is that society must through this young man’s amazing ascent from a slum existence to study at the feet and lecture halls of the best scholars and tutors Kenya can offer to the slide down the slippery pole of unemployment, acknowledge that we are trapped in a hall of mirrors.
This is the point at which introspection calls for the oft-quoth “Tunaomba serikali” (we beseech our government), that we remember the litany of honey-coated promises every leader, religious, youthful, political or even from star-struck lover, when they seek our support for their ascent into office or position of favour.
For politicians, it is the promise of gainful employment or the mere enabling environment conducive for opportunity for entrepreneurship. Right from the colonial education system to the current day, learning has been strapped into a strait jacket to be delivered to the formal employment sector.
Career counselling speaks of opportunity to sit at the top of the pile of economic achievement, but never about what prospects await failure to board such wagon. And our protagonist in today’s edition failed by our rigid standards.
He mirrors and echoes the shattered dreams of many youth and who, in society’s name-and-shame existence, have fallen short of the lofty expectations of humanity. Jail them! we are wont to chant. Hang them! we say as we cast the proverbial first stone.
But since it is joblessness that propelled this young, promising graduate to a life in crime and not some pyschological aberration, we the media can only put it out for the public to judge. For the policymakers, this is a wake-up call on what more they can do to wash the oil off the graduation pole that is enabling the slide into a life of violent crime.
Generalisations are dangerous and like many developing countries, Kenya is plagued by corrupt politics, skewed sitting at the dinner table of opportunity, thereby stoking dangerous liaisons that ultimately harm all of society.
Indeed, stereotyping of the criminal mindset has often meant street urchins, former jailbirds and historical injustices formed the main pool of criminality.
It is astounding that, other than these, any one missing link in society can drive ordinary looking persons, neighbours and relatives to a life of criminality.
