Silence of the estates

Nowadays, media reports in Kenya are startling. The graphical accounts of a society gone rogue should concern every sober soul.

Wanjiku is in trouble and seem to live at the whims and caprices of heartless capitalists, schemers, racketeers and extortionists.

From casual murders, cheating in exams, to escapades of big public money tossed around, just as tots do with leaves at playtime, you get an uncanny feeling of a shredded social shroud. A society that was on an epic take-off to a golden age seems to stare at dark clouds.

Pray, why are we rapidly regressing to a Hobbesian society? How did we find ourselves in this imbroglio? Why is our society in romance with evil and diligent in self-destruction? Just what killed our conscience?

These and many more are tricky questions. But, to whom are we apportioning culpability for failure to safeguard propriety, uphold our collective will and hope for a dignified, just, and moral society?  

The answers are varied. Still, it is critical that we interrogate four strategic institutions that ought to act, with supreme fidelity, for public interest- the Legislature, Judiciary, Church and Media.

Let us start with the August House -ideally the embodiment of the Will of the People. Yet, the people’s reps are busy hurling insults, hero-worshiping and turning a blind eye as Wanjiku is throttled. That’s why the rights of Wanjiku are on sale and being trampled upon by corporates, state technocrats and the nouveau riche. The people’s rep has breached the trust of the mass as a true agent.  We are in a realm of feeble political structures and barren ideological enterprises. Ours is a dominion of raw greed and selfishness where we abscond the sacred cardinal duty of representing the will of the people.

The judiciary, it goes without saying, is core to the civility of any society. Indeed, a vibrant society will innovate, create wealth and prosper in all facets, when, it is sure of protection and justice amid transgressions. But the other day, Sharad Rao of the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board dropped a bomb about the not so nice things that happen in the corridors. If money is swaying logic, then there is course for worry.

A pence tinkling in the corridors of justice, is akin to an imp dining with the high priest. That is why Rawls called for a veil of ignorance such that no class, colour, cash or creed should sway the scales of justice. Instead we expect rigours of integrity, independence, and professionalism. Fair and accountable justice ensures that the citizenry live and transact their affairs with confidence. If a price is attached to justice, it's the poor Wanjiku who looses out. Obviously she cannot afford the big money.

Yet, the Kenyan Church, refuge of last resort, is on the cross. The church ought to construct a moral society. But it also has a powerful role- to admonish evil meted on society. Sadly, in Kenya, such a prophetic voice is dead. Instead, the churchprenuers fancy to roll red carpets to the very oppressors of the poor. The church has turned a blind eye on social injustices. Instead, the church has become a boutique for indulgences.

Charlatans who twist the scriptures for material gain have infiltrated the pulpit. And what we get is perverted gospel.  In the meantime, the clergy keep gobbling what Pope Francis recently described as “bloody money.” We need to kick the hell out of these priests.

Lastly folks, it's the Fourth Estate. Now, that which wowed Edmund Burke as the veritable watchdog, so altruistic in form and content, seem to loose its mojo.

One has this discomforting feeling that the media is punching below its weight. Commercial interests, it seems, have finally defanged the Press. For instance, during its golden age, the media needn’t require affidavits to report transgressions. They investigated and splashed the scoop.

That is why we need to be fretful when these estates vacillate in the pursuit of common good. But more so, we should be worried of the spiral of silence we have elected to live with.

The writer is a media and communication advisor