It's great idea to let cops raise kids, now that we've become police state

Police officers keep vigil during Saba Saba protests in Kitengela, on July 7, 2025. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

It's evident that Prezzo Bill Ruto has been agonising about the quality of parenting, as he seeks to understand why the young generation, popularly known as Gen-Z's have turned out as they are.

In recent weeks, Prezzo Ruto has blamed just about everybody, from the civil society, to the media, the opposition, and the church-not the evangelicals, whose prelates turn out in bright-coloured suits, dyed hair and high-waistlines, like the Madilu system-but the less flamboyant types known as the "mainstream Church."

Last weekend, in Machakos, Prezzo Ruto blamed parents for shepherding their kids to the streets, where police with bayonets are waiting. Hear him: "Every parent, including me, I take time to parent my children - and so must everybody," Prezzo Ruto said. "The police are trained to deal with criminals. They are not trained in parenting."

I like the idea of letting the police raise our children, now that we have become a police state. And we should start by dignifying our officers so that they don't live in tin ramshackle with flimsy pazia serving as the borderline between families' dwellings.

Police who live in dignity and have no anxieties that the spouses they leave sleeping won't wander off to their friendly neighbours and nap on, are likely to bring less kisirani to the citizens they encounter in the streets.

Even better, the government should relax the requirement that police officers can only be housed in police lines. In the spirit of "Nyumba Kumi," they should live where regular citizens reside, and help raise our children. After all, it takes a village to raise a child.