Growing up corrupt: A journey into adulthood in Kenya

I first encountered the term ufisadi (corruption) when I was about 10 years old, in an editorial caricature on Taifa Leo – the Swahili version of the Daily Nation newspaper. My grandfather would make me read it out loud for him as he worked, for the coveted prize of owning the Katumbilikimo page.

The memory is fairly vague, but I vividly remember a few things – for who can forget the day they lost their innocence? I asked my grandfather what it meant, and he nonchalantly summed it up as 'TKK – Toa Kitu Kidogo'. Upon noticing my confusion, he further explained that it's what a policeman would say if he caught me riding my bike at night without a light. Odd, I thought, but that, he said, was ufisadi in its purest form. And so began a personal journey with the most contagious plague of our lifetime.