Civility must be the new currency of our fire starters and stone throwers

Youths scamper for safety after police lobbed teargas during Deputy President William Ruto's rally at Kondele Kisumu County on November 10, 2021. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Adolescents are no longer playing with fire–they are speaking with it. ‘Kondele-scents’ are supposed to be speaking the peace language by now, but instead they are speaking the language of stones. A starved moral sense chokes the sense of the sacred.

Educational institutions are shrines of knowledge with a history to be revered. Small businesses run on faith-fuel given the large families they feed. This reality should invoke respect for the kiosk. The school and the kiosk carry a sacredness that makes them deserve preservation. But when the moral compass is lost, chaos blindly overruns them.