Kenya is now not only a nation—it’s a crime scene. A criminal offense scene the place the thieves don’t even hassle to run, the place they don’t put on masks, the place they steal with their names printed boldly on gazette notices. A land the place budgets are drafted as financial institution heists, the place insurance policies are designed as getaway automobiles, and the place authorities workplaces are simply company branches of well-organized looting syndicates.
They are looting by the Housing Levy Fund, and we’re silent. They advised us it was for reasonably priced housing, but all we see are mushrooming mansions in Karen, lavish properties in Dubai, and some shiny PR initiatives meant to pacify the gullible. They are taking from the pockets of the poor to finance the opulence of the already rich, but we nonetheless present up at rallies to cheer them on.
They are looting by the Social Health Authority (SHA) and Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF), and we’re silent. They shut down NHIF with the promise of one thing higher, but the one factor that has modified is the extent of theft. Patients are nonetheless dying in hospitals, medical doctors are nonetheless underpaid, medication remains to be lacking—however the individuals in energy are smiling at high-profile medical conferences overseas, discussing “universal healthcare” in designer fits as if Kenyans can eat PowerPoint shows.
They are looting by budgeted corruption, and we’re silent. They don’t even conceal it anymore. Budgets are now not monetary plans; they’re organized theft manuals. Billions for ghost initiatives. Trillions for procurement scandals. 100 million to color a hospital, but inside, there’s no medication, no medical doctors, no working machines—simply empty beds ready for the following sufferer of state neglect.
Public healthcare is dying, and we’re okay with that. The well-connected don’t die in Kenyan hospitals; they’re airlifted overseas with taxpayer cash, handled in hospitals funded by sincere taxpayers from different nations, after which flown again to inform us how “healthcare reforms are progressing well.” Meanwhile, the extraordinary Kenyan sells land, borrows from predatory mortgage apps, and nonetheless dies on the gate of a hospital that calls for money earlier than therapy.
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Public training is dying, and we’re okay with that. Teachers are underpaid, school rooms are overcrowded, and college students sit on the ground in mud-walled buildings. Meanwhile, the leaders who refuse to fund public colleges ship their youngsters overseas, the place no scholar ever research beneath a leaking roof. Then they arrive again and inform us how they “value education” whereas holding levels they didn’t earn in a rustic that now sells levels like low-cost roadside bananas.
The theft has developed, mutated, and gained ranges of sophistication that might make legendary financial institution robbers jealous. During Jomo Kenyatta’s time, they stole farms and homes. During Moi’s time, they stole lots of of hundreds. During Kibaki’s time, they upgraded to stealing thousands and thousands. Uhuru got here, they usually began stealing billions. Now, beneath Ruto, we now have unlocked the ultimate degree—trillions are vanishing, and all we now have are authorities speeches sprinkled with Bible verses to maintain us distracted.
They are stealing in broad daylight, and we’re clapping. They are robbing us blind, and we’re too busy debating their tribal affiliations as an alternative of jailing them. They are laughing at us as a result of they know we’ll nonetheless vote them again in. They know we’ll nonetheless line as much as defend them. They know we’ll nonetheless discover excuses for them.
Why are we so calm about this theft? Why can we normalize our struggling? Why can we deal with corruption like an unlucky climate sample as an alternative of the catastrophe it’s? Do we not notice that each stolen shilling is a stolen future? That each misplaced billion is a mom who will die at childbirth, a scholar who won’t ever graduate, a farmer who will stay in poverty?
We usually are not a poor nation. We are a robbed nation. We usually are not a helpless individuals. We are a individuals who have been conditioned to just accept theft as management. And till we resolve that sufficient is sufficient, they are going to maintain looting. They will maintain feasting. And they are going to maintain laughing—as a result of, for now, Kenya is a buffet, and we’re the meal.