There is a fireplace that burns within the hearts of Kenyans. A fireplace not of ambition, not of resilience, not of hope, however of unquenchable greed. It is the starvation that is aware of no satiety, the thirst that can not be quenched, the abyss that swallows all and nonetheless calls for extra. It is greed, and it has wrapped its bony fingers across the throat of this nation, squeezing till the air is thick with corruption, suffocation, and decay.
Where did we study this artwork of insatiable starvation? Did it seep into our veins by means of colonial exploitation? Did we inherit it from the sellout chiefs who exchanged their folks for a handful of cash and whisky? Or did we craft it ourselves, like a blacksmith forging the very chains that can in the future shackle him? Whatever its origin, greed has turn into the inspiration of our nationwide character, the guiding philosophy behind each choice we make.
Look at our politics. It will not be a contest of ideologies or visions; it’s a contest of stomachs. The winner will not be the one with the very best insurance policies, however the one with the widest mouth and the deepest stomach. They come to us with empty pockets, empty guarantees, and empty hearts, and inside months, they’re swollen with stolen billions, their mansions rising the place hospitals ought to stand, their financial institution accounts fattening whereas schoolchildren share pencils. And nonetheless, they need extra. Like hyenas circling a carcass, they combat not for the folks, however for the most important chunk of the loot.
Greed has remodeled public service right into a looking floor. You don’t enter to serve, you enter to eat. You don’t climb the ladder by benefit, you climb it by bribery, by connections, by promoting your soul to the very best bidder. And when you attain the highest, the rule is straightforward: shut the door behind you and begin amassing your spoils. The CEO takes his reduce, the procurement officer takes his, the accountant inflates the bill, the clerk calls for chai, and the safety guard on the gate is not going to allow you to in with out “something small.”
Is it any surprise that our roads crack open inside weeks of development? That medication disappears from hospitals earlier than sufferers can obtain it? That police posts turn into public sale homes the place justice is bought to the very best bidder? Even the useless are usually not spared. Morgues refuse to launch our bodies till their palms are greased, and gravesites are bought like plots in an elite suburb.
Yet the abnormal Kenyan, too, is an confederate on this grand conspiracy of greed. We bribe site visitors police and complain about corruption. We cheat exams and surprise why we’ve got incompetent docs. We demand kickbacks to vote after which cry when leaders steal. Every finger that factors on the corrupt has three fingers pointing again at itself. We are all drowning on this swamp, but we fake it is just the politicians who’re rotten.
This greed has turned public service into non-public enterprise. To get an ID, you should pay. To get a passport, you should pay. To get electrical energy, to get a water connection, to get a police report, to get a mattress in a hospital, to get a job within the army—every thing has a worth. The structure might name Kenya a republic, however in actuality, it’s a well-organized legal enterprise the place each service has a toll gate and each official is a toll collector.
The Kenya Kwanza administration, the ruling coalition, has taken greed to demonic ranges. Their starvation is in contrast to something we’ve got seen earlier than. They haven’t any disgrace, no restraint, no restrict. They loot in broad daylight, with cameras flashing and microphones recording, and they don’t even blink. They create taxes to not construct the nation, however to fill their pockets. They cross insurance policies to not assist the folks, however to profit their cronies. Their greed is a black gap, an limitless pit that swallows taxes, loans, grants, and donations, leaving nothing for the widespread mwananchi.
And because of this greed isn’t just an financial drawback—it’s a nationwide safety disaster. A nation the place justice is on the market, the place management is an funding to be recouped by means of corruption, the place the poor can’t entry healthcare, and the place youth can’t discover jobs, is a nation sitting on a ticking time bomb. Hunger, joblessness, and desperation are the right recipe for crime, for radicalization, for revolt. A rustic can’t be at peace when its individuals are ravenous whereas just a few males hoard billions in offshore accounts.
Greed is the explanation why bandits rule the North, why slums swell with unemployed youth, why cholera outbreaks nonetheless kill folks in 2025. It is the explanation why we’ve got extra church buildings than factories, extra thieves than traders, extra politicians than leaders. It is the explanation why a college graduate turns into a hawker, why a mom should select between paying hire and shopping for meals, why a boda boda rider dies chasing an additional fifty shillings.
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There isn’t any future for a rustic the place cash is worshipped greater than morality. Where the wealthy steal from the poor and the poor steal from one another. Where even faith has turn into a enterprise, and males of God public sale prayers like market distributors promoting tomatoes.
If we don’t confront this greed now, it should eat us utterly. It will strip our land naked, flip our youngsters into beggars, and our streets into conflict zones. We should acknowledge that no nation in historical past has ever prospered on theft and deception. The Rome of extra collapsed. The empires of plunder fell. Kenya might be no completely different if we don’t change course.
We should kill this gluttony earlier than it kills us. We should reject leaders who steal. We should refuse to take part in corruption. We should educate our youngsters that integrity is price greater than wealth. We should make greed costly and honesty worthwhile. And we should do not forget that a nation will not be constructed by thieves, however by the sincere labor of its folks.
The way forward for Kenya is at stake, and the selection is ours: will we proceed down this highway of self-destruction, or will we reclaim our souls from the grip of greed? Whatever we determine, one fact stays: if we don’t defeat greed, greed will defeat us.