The political decibels are up again, accompanied by the same dance to political drumbeats.
It compels us to listen to new choruses, and hopefully, the desert locusts too. Will they heed? We Kenyans love watching, and now joining in, the “locust dance”.
We watch mesmerised as locusts eat our crops, taking selfies and sharing them on social media for “likes”! These locusts are determined to decimate our entire nation.
They lay millions of eggs that hatch on the ground. Are we merely going to watch and “like”? Just as we do with the political dances?
These locusts are a symbol of a vice, of the epidemic of greed that voraciously devours our values and resources, our faith and our goodness — and our seeming impotence to face them. And they start hatching at home.
Don’t you see how we teach our own to rush to watch, cheer and “like” the nonsense around us?
Thus, we give licence to anyone, to eat away at our decency, respect and honesty, while we record clips and “like”. And herein lies our undoing.
We entertain anything. Our problem is that we started tutorials in dishonesty in our own homes and families.
The masters of corruption once walked the village paths. Maybe we incubated “corruption eggs” by pushing unfettered craving for money.
“Study so that you can become very rich.” They now populate our corruption axis: on the roads as “toll-taking” policemen, in the offices as dubious procurement officers, in politics as foul-mouthed wheeler-dealers, in business as unscrupulous counterfeit suppliers.
Our communities and even some churches are the birthplace of corruption.
While we call out the swindlers of tax money, we are busy diluting the milk and training our domestic helps in dishonesty.
Some of these desperate workers spend Christmas in our homes without a taste of the roast goat our children are eating. These little “locusts” soon grow.
Corruption is the total lack of appreciation of the dignity and rights of another, and taking advantage of one’s position of privilege to exploit.
We teach it when we endorse lies and deprive weak people of their rights.
Corruption runs deep in the village culture, under the guise of survival. In our chamas, some members collude to squander collections; funeral committees never get the final account right because they help themselves to it; cooperatives are dying because two or three people lied to members about income from their farm produce; churches are competing on how much they can raise or the type of cars pastors or priests drive.
Kenyans, this “locust invasion” must be dealt with, courageously. It will only end when we stop letting them lay eggs in our home; when we each become brave enough to break the chain of corruption.
It means putting a stop to the culture of celebrating the “King-Thief”.
We must stop cheering and endorsing these false “bling kings”, and rather ostracise them and deny them “celebrity” status.
Let us keep the display of riches from our churches. Let’s ask our children how they got rich so quickly without a high-paying job or business.
Before we ask for the declaration of wealth from our leaders, let us ask about people in our families and communities.
I plead, don’t “like” the “locust invasion”, fumigate. The writer is the Roman Catholic archbishop of Nyeri and chair of the KCCB Anti-Corruption Campaign.
Need we mention the shrewd cartels in our education institutions that heavily “tax” unga, maize and other school commodities before arriving at the consumption point?
Yes, we are implicated, we watch the “locusts” eat, and paradoxically we eat with them!
From Nchi ya kitu kidogo, we have now been labelled Wanjinga Nation, dazed by greed, enchanted by the love of money and the false charm of those who have money — money without ethics and effort, that enchains the souls.
Must we sacrifice our own children’s souls for the love of money?
Kenyans, this “locust invasion” must be dealt with, courageously. It will only end when we stop letting them lay eggs in our home; when we each become brave enough to break the chain of corruption!
It means putting a stop to the culture of celebrating the “King-Thief”! We must stop cheering and endorsing these false “bling kings”, and rather ostracise them, and deny them “celebrity” status!
Let us keep the display of riches from our churches! Let’s ask our children how they got rich so quickly without a high paying job, or how they are driving such a vehicle three years after college.
Before we ask for the declaration of wealth from our leaders, let us ask about people in our families and communities.
I plead, don’t “like” the “locust invasion”, fumigate! Kenyans must disdain this cult to opulence!
The writer is the Archbishop of Nyeri and Chair KCCB Anti-Corruption Campaign
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