How easily Kenyans fall for lies as leaders plunder the country

Deputy President William Ruto, who has declared interest in the 2022 presidency race. [File]

Have politicians weaponised lies to deny us, Kenyans of low social standing, a chance to interrogate their actions in the spirit of public accountability and transparency?

The accusations and counter accusations on the mega corruption deals point to a society that is living in denial. Lies have replaced truth. Take the following example:The pastoralist community knows how precious animals are.

If a family has 100 cows and an unscrupulous neighbour keeps stealing 5, 10, 12 and so forth and the victim keeps praying for the remaining cows to give birth to replace the stolen ones, surely the thief will continue being richer and the ‘peaceful neighbour’ continue losing.

The thief will committedly pray for the family losing cows and offer any kind of support to the victims if only to sooth and pacify them.

The victims may know who is stealing the cows. But, if they think the thief is too strong to be attacked, they coil back, lament, curse, report to the local chief and pray thunder strikes the thief dead. Well, this will not help.

Ironically, there is a school of thinking in psychology which, in this case, would say that such an overpowering thief in the neighborhood would eventually turn the victims into his or her supporters.

The reason is that the victims feel safer in the hands of a deadly person than in confronting the monster.

This kind of supporters become diehards. They are also called ‘happy slaves’.  They have simply rationalised a lie into a fact of life, hence into a way of life.

Sound conclusions

For starters, Kenya seems to be truly in a post-truth era. This is a historical period in which facts that constitute truth do not influence logical and sound conclusions. In this context, lies fill in the void. Truth hardly influences sound decision making.

Can we then argue that the fight against corruption will actually fail like many other attempts before? As a politically polarized society along ethnic lines, the strong men and women who rule have turned us into ‘happy slaves’. Why? Because the amount of monies lost and yet we move on with life for “the cows will continue to give birth anyway, and thunder will strike the thief” is disturbing.

Take another example of leading politicians in this country who unequivocally tell us that general election campaigns ended early 2018.

Well, that is good for Kenyans of low standing, who, otherwise are called ordinary Kenyans, or, in economic standards, the low class.

The facts are out there for all and sundry to know that campaigns towards 2022 or thereabout have gained momentum with some politicians going as far as printing posters of their 2022 candidature.

Liberate themselves

The available material facts of serious campaigns having started are evidences of truth. But the flattering speeches to the contrary - call them politically correct speeches - especially from the candidates themselves that campaigns ended last year are lies.

The truth is, whoever cares for a top seat in 2022, is already in the jungle hunting against all known electoral rules.

But why do political power seekers lie?  First, because we Kenyans have grown numb to anything truth.

We have learnt that truth does not, contrary to common teaching, set one free. It, instead, gets you into trouble. Trouble with law enforcers. Trouble with law breakers. Subsequently, trouble with self.

Second, when truth does liberate, the human tendency is to abandon it. In life we want rewards not punishments. Pain, as we have come to learn from human rights activists and defenders, hardly pays.

Fence sitters do least to liberate themselves, but in a count of who gains most from the work of human rights, these fence sitters take the front seats on a high table.

So will it not, in fullness of time, make more sense to live for a lie that rewards than a painful truth whose outcome may just be punishment?

The truth we have to live with is that Kenya is our country and all of us have a duty to stick with the truth not lies.

The Government has to free space for the civil society to do its rightful role of not only advocating for the rights of people, but also demand greater accountability and transparency from the Government itself.

The entrenched culture of ruling through lies is dangerous for the future of our country. Let us turn the tide of lies into one of truth.

Dr Mokua – Executive Director, Jesuit Hakimani Centre