In old days, people believed in virtues like courtesy, kindness and patience. Kenyans, back in the good old days saw much value in doing the right thing. Being a person of virtue was laudable. My mother always boasts that when she was growing up, you could leave your purse unattended, return hours later and find all the contents intact.
One cannot help but view the contemporary Kenyan society with disillusionment. The rule of thumb in any situation, it seems, is eat or get eaten, kill or get killed, steal or be stolen from. Incessant back-stabbing and exploitation is the order of the day.
This explains why some elderly citizens in Kitui were conned of the money rightfully given to them through the government’s social protection plan some time back. I found it appalling and disheartening.
The poor old folks are living in destitution, yet some manipulative headmen could not spare the little they got from the State. Mzee Musya Muinde, one of the victims, gave a saddening testimony of how he lost his share of the money.
He recalled being accosted by a headman after collecting his money. The headman claimed that ‘a little something’ had to be given to munene (area chief) as an incentive to facilitate quicker release of the next bunch of money.
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Such merciless acts show disrespect to people’s rights, especially to the right to property under local and international law. It also spits on people’s dignity – a treasure that should be guarded.
A few days after the media reported the unfortunate happenings in Kitui, there was news about fraud in relation to the land designated for the techno city, Konza. This, not forgetting the Lamu land issue and Mau forest question, which are still being grappled with.
Committing more fraudulent acts in relation to land not only hurts the victims but the country as a whole. It speaks volumes about our moral character as a nation. Kenya is a society replete with greed, distrust and falsehood – this is the message all these happenings is sending to the rest of the world.
Our anti-virtue mindset is reflected even in the little day-to-day activities. Crossing the road in Kenya is a skill that requires agility, dexterity and good timing. Most drivers in our good nation are in too much of a hurry to let pedestrians cross.
It really does not take much for a driver to stop for a few negligible minutes or seconds to allow pedestrians get to the other side of the road, but most of our drivers have not shown willingness to let sense prevail on the roads.
The National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) has, from its research, shown that over 200 people have died from boda-boda (bicycle or motorbike) accidents this year. Motorcyclists are notoriously infamous for flouting road rules.
They manoeuvre through traffic dangerously and ride through even when the traffic light is red. This is the epitome of inconsideration because it endangers the lives of other motorists.
It may all seem like a lot of ranting, but the question we should be asking ourselves as a nation is: How can Kenyans trust each other again, like in the good old days, when society today is so nonchalant about some cardinal values?
How can we restore the lost sense of oneness and brotherhood we once shared and strove to uphold? Our ‘moral revolution’ must surely start somewhere, and soon. It must commence at the individual level because charity begins at home.
