High Cost of Corruption
Posted by Social Matters , Sunday, September 29, 2013 10:29 AM
The
High Cost of Corruption…
A story is told, one day the people of a
certain area in Nairobi decided that they had had enough of the matatu’s
increasing fare for no good reason, and they dared the matatu to drive into the
police station which they did, only for the police men to side with the matatu
and to rub insult to injury all passengers were ordered to alight and were left
at the police station stranded while the matatu was ordered to go back to town
and pick more passengers. Another story is told of a matatu that was car jacked
and after the ordeal they reported to a police station only to be ordered to
report to another police station in another area, they gave up and went home,
it was late, and they risked being robbed again with no police protection
offered they knew they were fighting a losing battle.
Another story is told a young woman who
was arrested because she told off the police she saw while in a matatu she was
in receiving bribes. She was later released but she was the unsung hero no one
really cared about. In the place where I stay, over loaded matatus are the
order of the day, they pass through road blocks at times two but the power of
the fifty shillings note is pretty amazing. These policemen are not only
failing to protect the people they were mandated to, but they are indeed
signing the death certificate of many Kenyans by allowing unroadworthy vehicles
and overloaded PSVs on the road. But also many a times the passengers
themselves would rather ride in an overloaded matatu than wait in an empty
matatu. My dad once tried to tell the matatu driver to ignore the policemen
asking for bribes but it was in vain. The handing out bribes culture is so
common in Kenya that it’s no longer a secret, at times the driver requests a
passenger with a fifty shillings note to give it to him to be refunded later. It’s
sad because not only are public officials willing to receive bribes but the public
is only to eager to hand over the bribes to them, it’s a way of life that we as
Kenyans have become so accustomed to.
I have heard stories, watched on telly
how easy it is for foreigners to become Kenyan citizens, all they need is
money. In so many places ordinary Kenyans have become so accustomed to buying
every day services. Its seems, it’s always somebody’s time to eat in Kenya.
Lastly I remember a time when some
women, in Mombasa were complaining that their sons were being recruited to join
the Alshabaab, also remember that one of areas affected by drug abuse is the
Coast region, the saying goes like ‘what goes around comes around.’
I suggest that Kenya will always be a
soft spot for terror attacks unless ordinary Kenyans ask hard questions and our
leaders legislate better policies to handle corruption and the safety of all
Kenyans, until then I doubt as a country we will ever be safe. Kenyans expect
change to come from the top, but the best change will always be bottom up.
Corruption is a huge monster that should make us rethink about the change we
need in this country and realize that we as Kenyans have let our country down,
always caught up in petty tribal politics that will never bring us change in
this country, let go of that, unify and take collective responsibility for the
grand corruption that will ultimately be our down fall.
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