Thriving Impunity

In this article Tela Wangeci describes for the world How Impunity Thrives in Kenya 

Welcome to Kenya; a country where you will be prosecuted for trying to rescue your child from a hospital because you can’t pay the bill yet you won’t be arrested when Sh21bn goes missing in the government. As Kenyans we have simply learned that we cannot choose leaders based on their family line, businesses they own or even who they know. These are not the days when the Lord sends a prophet to anoint the next leader, no we are in a new era. The citizens are always complaining about the lack of bursaries and lack of streetlights, but we still elect the same leaders into the system and the cycle repeats itself for the next 5 years.

“As much as we complain about poor leadership, we lack good leaders to elect. This is because of ethnic interference and incitement against different tribes,” says Ali Noor a businessman in Nairobi. Due to poor leadership, we have unqualified professionals in the industry, that is why we see numerous strikes over petty things. This is why we have doctors administering the wrong dosage of medicine causing people to die. We lack the personnel with the required skills because those in power have closed their eyes to the wrongdoings. The policemen receive bribes from motorists that have overcarried, pedestrians are dying because of their ignorance, cheating in exams has become a normal thing and the rate of unemployment is shooting up. It seems that the country is allergic to good leadership or anyone who wants to steer the country in the right direction. Back in July 2017 after the death of Joseph Nkaiserry who was the Cs of Education, Mr Matiangi was put as the acting Cs. The uproar in the country was immense saying that he is not qualified. Matiangi has lived true to his policy of changing the systems in the country both in education and in the security sector.

“I still do not understand how and why sheesha was banned in the country. It has not had any effect on us,”Belinda Murugi a third-year student at a local university says with a lot of anger and disappointment on her face. This was a reform introduced by the Cs of Health Mrs Sicily Kariuki. The uproar also, when she ruled out sheesha from the streets deeming it unfit for human health was quite loud. The youth had a lot to say and it has not been any good.

We cannot make a change by always opposing the right thing, we are the change we require and we need to acknowledge that. Fifty-six years since independence and what does Kenya have to show off its victory against the colonialists apart from corruption scandals. “We cannot be fighting impunity without tracing the root of impunity,” says Annet Mugwe a practising sociologist in Kenya. Immediately the citizens realise that they are the game changer and they can make the country better, there will be an assured shift in position. The leaders will not have anyone to cheat, intimidate or use to incite the mass. Next time you are at the ballot box, ask yourself what have they done for us over the past 56 years and has it been good or bad. Always remember, Kenya is ours and if we let impunity crawl in its right to say the colonists should have never left and the education they bestowed to us has not been of any impact to the nation.

This article was written by Tela Wangeci for Radio 254 and published on 4 May 2022. May the fourth be will you as you traverse the world.