Being a damned Kenyan

Are you a Kenyan or have lived in Kenyan for a long while? Then I would refer to you as a Kenyan. If you are, then I’m sure you have at least one experience that left you wondering why you had to be in Kenya. Yes! You are damned. Why do I say damned? Well, for those of us who travel a lot, we usually undergo untold suffering. Little or not it is suffering.

Figure this, as a traveller (by road) you know that some of the Traffic Rules were re-enforced yet you board that vehicle that clearly flouts the rules. If you ask and they say ‘hawaangaliangi hizo,’ hiyo haina shida,’ ‘hata yako haina’ or ‘kama yako ina shida shuka.’ Other incidents are market driven. The majority of PSVs reek in huge profits. When fuel prices go up by 1% or 2% the fares go up by at least 25% - skewed economics. They will pick you anywhere and drop you past where you want. The conductor will leave his seat then squeeze you in yours without asking. Kindly do not mention the way they stick their armpits in your face when they are collecting fare. When some of the buses speed and roll, the driver says there was an oncoming car or blames the state of the road…if the road is bad so how do you roll if you were driving slowly? I was driving slowly but lost control!? Is it a lack of professionalism or is it that you do not know who to complain to thus you are damned.

Have you ever complained of how you pay for services which are poorly done or not at all? Well, that is just another case of being a damned Kenyan. If you would mention the local government, now county governments…it makes my eyes water. They are just the mother of them all! From arrogance to the worst services on the surface of earth. When you park your car they are nowhere to be seen, when you leave they clamp it– then try reason with them; planet earth was not for you. Carry a few cartons and paper bags of goods in the city centre and you risk being arrested for hawking. The other day I heard that they can arrest you for soliciting/prostitution if you are found talking to a lady on the streets at night. Complain: go tell the magistrate you were talking to your sister...end up staying longer in the holding cells for denying; you are so damned.

The system is actually the champion in making you a damned Kenyan. The police will arrest you if you had less than fourteen shillings in your pockets. They will watch you alight from a bus on your way home and then arrest you for loitering with intent; some have  actually been arrested as they wait for their gates to be opened. They will then watch you get robbed and ask you ‘why did they rob you,’ ‘who were they,’’ ‘how much was it,’ or even ‘why you were where you were at the time of the robbery.’ If it were your home they would treat everything with suspicion…even the dog, hen and cat. Try reporting a matter and you get arrested for withholding information. And to whom will you complain…bitter you. I think you are a damned Kenyan.

It is only in Kenya where you continue buying your items from someone who has evaded paying taxes, or all their items are imported and then you complain there are no jobs. It is only in Kenya where somebody hits your car and beats you after you have signed the agreement papers. Only in Kenya will they tell you that ‘soni’ is the new original name for Sony. A Kenyan will give you the true direction first time; ask him a second time they will direct you to thugs.  It is only here where the politicians say one thing and deny ever uttering such words the next day.

Today I learn that there are some crooks in government who want to forcefully buy out people’s land in the name of constructing roads. To buy out sections of people’s land for the specific public use is noble. It becomes unfortunate when the said total buyouts is to give way to use small sections of the said land for road construction use, then sell out the rest to themselves or to others since the value will appreciate. They approach you in the name of government and take away your land privately. Question: do they use the whole piece of land to construct the said road? Does the government hand you back the land that remains unused or gives you first priority to buy it back? NO! NO!

Does it bother you that international oil cartels can hold the country and Kenyans at ransom? In Kwale district we have titanium. The poor are handed Kshs 80, 000 per acre others less to vacate – the company will definitely make more than that per acre. Then the government does not want to invest in a processing plant for the raw material and subsequently development of related product industries…it ends up in  being exported as raw material to another country. Then it is processed and they sell to us the finished product in form of a plane or other gadgets at exorbitant prices. Does it bother you?  You are a darmed Kenyan?

Ever wondered why our education system is conservative? Is it to preserve the status quo? I think this education I get is not meant to make me a great thinker or the greatest innovator…why – because they do not recognise my inventions. Look at the secondary school science congress innovations that have left many students disillusioned with trophies on their shelves. When someone’s future is purely pegged on one’s academic performance in a few hours’ examinations it is unfair and retrogressive. The education system rates all students as the same and does not nurture individual talents and abilities so as to turn their divergent potential to successful innovators in their own fields of interest.

It is a sad picture when you see other nationals come, set up successful businesses then repatriate all their profits without investing in the country. Is there no law to limit how much one can repatriate from here? Some foreign nationals are so adept at hurling insults and degrading their Kenyan workers. Yet back in their countries they were nothing. They exploit us and we do nothing! Do we allow and accept too much? Where we allow foreign embassies to take over the roles of our own government. Take over roads, arrest people, carry out military training and leave live ammunitions for our children to play with!

I am a patriotic Kenyan; I am not proud and will not be in the near future when you and I continue to allow this kind of injustices to happen. I proscribe violence because it will beget violence and implant violence as a means to an end in my siblings’ brains. As I write this I have a clouded conscience. My mind is subjective in you being objective. Think again about your actions and actions done unto you, you will see that you are a darned Kenyan.