A nation that doesn’t punish its criminals will not be a nation—it’s a playground for the depraved. Kenya, in its knowledge, has perfected the artwork of wanting the opposite means, of yawning on the spectacle of impunity, of turning injustice into an Olympic sport the place the gold medalists dine in State House. Here, the legislation will not be blind; it’s merely winking at these with energy, reminding them that the scales of justice could be tipped with the precise amount of cash or threats.
We reside in a rustic the place dangerous habits is not only tolerated; it’s rewarded with tenders, motorcades, and tv interviews the place the culprits chortle in our faces. Steal billions from a hospital meant for most cancers sufferers, and you can be honored as a “hustler” who made it. Murder a journalist who dared expose the reality, and your solely punishment shall be an costly vacation overseas, sponsored by taxpayers. Here, penalties are a fantasy instructed to scare youngsters, not a actuality that applies to the highly effective.
Our politicians, ever the pioneers of delinquency, have mastered the artwork of audacity. They rig elections with the subtlety of a bulldozer, stuffing poll containers like a Christmas turkey whereas daring us to “go to court.” They embezzle funds meant for faculties, leaving youngsters to check underneath bushes, after which shamelessly ship “development promises” with the identical stolen cash. And the individuals? Oh, the individuals cheer them on, clapping like educated seals in a circus, as a result of in Kenya, the road between sufferer and enabler is skinny, and sometimes, nonexistent.
Justice here’s a luxurious merchandise, solely accessible to those that can afford it. If you steal a loaf of bread as a result of your baby is hungry, count on the complete wrath of the legislation to descend upon you want a biblical plague. But if you happen to steal public funds meant for 1,000,000 hungry youngsters, the legislation will politely look away, busy with “procedural technicalities.” The prisons are filled with petty offenders, whereas the grand criminals sit in boardrooms, sipping aged whisky and drafting new methods to plunder.
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There is a motive our leaders behave like medieval kings—as a result of they know they will. Impunity is their birthright, and we, the residents, have made it so. We chortle at their scandals, making them trending matters as a substitute of authorized instances. We defend them alongside tribal traces, forgetting that corruption doesn’t discriminate in its destruction. We even re-elect them, as if rewarding theft with one other time period in workplace will miraculously flip thieves into saints.
And so the rot deepens. A senator sexually assaults a colleague in broad daylight, and the outrage lasts solely so long as a information cycle. By subsequent week, we now have moved on, distracted by a brand new scandal or a star marriage ceremony. A businessman launders drug cash by means of tenders, and as a substitute of investigations, he’s invited to fundraise at a church, the place the priest blesses him as a “philanthropist.” The courts, ever so environment friendly in delaying justice, will be certain that by the point a case is concluded, each the sufferer and the witnesses have both died, disappeared, or forgotten what they had been combating for.
In this land, the Constitution is a well-written fairytale, quoted solely when handy. Laws are mere decorations, helpful for intimidating the powerless however completely elective for the influential. The police, underpaid and overfed on bribes, are extra fascinated by defending criminals than prosecuting them. The judiciary, at all times desirous to “respect due process,” will drag a corruption case for 20 years, solely to rule that the proof is “inconclusive.”
It was as soon as stated {that a} society grows nice when previous males plant bushes whose shade they may by no means sit underneath. In Kenya, our leaders uproot these bushes, promote the land, after which blame local weather change once we all suffocate. Every election cycle, we’re promised reform, but all we get is a contemporary batch of looters with higher PR groups. They inform us to be affected person, to “trust the system,” however how can we belief a system designed to fail?
The fact is, we’re a rustic hooked on injustice. We know who the criminals are, we see them flaunting their wealth, but we do nothing. We have accepted corruption as a lifestyle, shrugged at rigged elections, and excused sexual predators with the notorious phrase, “Huyo ni mtu wetu”—as if loyalty to a tribe ought to override fundamental human decency.
And so, the cycle continues. The thieves get richer, the victims get silenced, and the residents get poorer. We inform ourselves that issues will change, however change doesn’t occur in a vacuum. It requires anger, motion, and the braveness to demand higher. It requires making impunity costly, not a free move. It requires penalties—actual, tangible, unavoidable penalties.
But till that day comes, Kenya stays what it has at all times been: a paradise for the responsible and a jail for the harmless.
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