By Abdullahi Jamaa
The scale of grand corruption in Kenya is truly mind-boggling, haunting our minds and hearts in an overwhelming manner that we have never witnessed before. Our feeble brains are dazed to comprehend the magnitude of venality that is so widespread and so common in every of our institutions.
For years and months we have been at the receiving end of daily news and information on corruption, of how billions were lost from one government agency to another and of how embezzlement of resources are orchestrated from the corridors of authority .
The earthquake of corruption is not just an economic firestorm cascading over our existence and threatening our nationhood but the endless looting of public resources is apparently a psychological torture that torments the humane feeling of any right-thinking citizen- it sucks.
Yes, by large it is an economic catastrophe but brooding over the numbers, the staggering billions and the repeated cycle of theft burdens reasonable human imaginations. Certainly we do not have much subtlety about this blatant stealing.
And so we can longer bear not just the financial impact of corruption but also of its negative effects on our mental health. For Kenyans with weak emotions, corruption really ravages their mind more than their wallets.
The agonizing pictures of famine-famished citizens from Turkana and Baringo are too tragic to bear and compare with billions of shillings that were stolen. It is unimaginable that people are living on the edge to death and devastation when the country can afford to save them from this kind of awful situation.
Seeing lifeless bodies strewn on some parts of our country is really horrific. It moves our psych especially when poor mothers and children die of starvation and thirst. In 21st century Kenya, such agonizing devastation are economically and socially avoidable however much they are natural.
In Islam we say ‘If you feel no shame do as you wish’. It is simply too painful to digest how few people can brazenly steal billions of shillings waylaying the life, the aspirations and the hope of the overwhelming majority. We have to acknowledge that we have given our lives to plunderers and we may never get it back from them.
As Kenyans we feel poor, powerless and down with the cancer of corruption. The vice has already destroyed the social fabrics of the nation and we are now sinking into its lowest suctions tearing apart the common Kenyan individual.
And just as cancer depletes the body ravaging every organ, graft in the country is draining poor Kenyans emotionally. So many of us are suffering in silence only watching Kenya on its deathbed as we ask ourselves ‘what next?’
As it is now, we may no longer need to know the news of ‘how much is stolen’. We are fed up and tired of this kind of news and our peace of mind has already been disturbed. We can’t believe not just the numbers but of every indignity of corruption. Oh my God!
The madness of unabated stealing smashed the innocence of poor people who no longer assume that lack of resources is the cause of their socio-economic problems. Kenyans especially those in rural settlements now acknowledge how corruption calls the shot in every of our 47 counties depleting public resources at an alarming rate.
We are already reeling under the weight of protracted economic hardships where every business is up against a brick wall and where every family struggles to pay its bills. Forget about fake statistics that our economy is projected to improve, that is an oligarchic fallacy that is intended to normalize an abnormal situation.
Our hearts are bleeding and our eyes are shedding tears of agony. We are seething in ceaseless frustrations as corruption exacerbates every passing day. Kenya deserves to have a museum for corruption masterminds where the ugly effigies of national thieves are stored and exhibited not just to hurt their emotions – the same way they did to us – but also to dehumanize perpetrators.
