tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post1871326777047604401..comments2024-03-28T10:14:04.854+03:00Comments on Gathara's World: Is the problem with Kenya really that it is full of Kenyans?Gatharahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05615274760892257015noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-3599359244645140272016-02-27T20:49:58.357+03:002016-02-27T20:49:58.357+03:00I remember the Kenyans of 2002, just after Moi lef...I remember the Kenyans of 2002, just after Moi left. I remember the rainbow and the light and the joy and the hope. I remember Kenyans arresting cops who demanded bribes. I remember that we were a nation in love, a nation of love. I remember how Kenyan we were and we lost, for a season, the thorns of race, creed and ethnicity. I remember the strangers in our city from elsewhere with whom I spoke who said they would do anything to be Kenyan that day. I remember the laughter and the caring and the taxes that were repaid by those who had never paid taxes in their lives. I remember that season of greatness and immense possibility and the freedom of a society that knew it was beautiful and perfect and created to excel. So that is also why I remember the most terrible betrayal of hope that the Kibaki Government instituted. The tragedy is not that the Government immediately broke our hearts with such cynical deeds and a willingness to crush our imagination of the dream, but that that man wasted the one chance given to him to establish a shining legacy that would have echoed down the centuries. For the rest of us, it was the understanding that for him, Kikuyu came before Kenya. Kikuyu was the priority and Kenya was not Kenya unless it was Kikuyu. This single factor, something we all need to talk about--it is repetition of a pathology that started in 1964--this is the single 'original wound/sin', that the country wrestles with, that denies it the fullness of the love that would destroy the acts of rottenness and death, which is what corruption is. Shall we talk about this? Shall we talk about the Kirubis, Ndegwas, Njonjos, Kairos, of this world? Shall we talk about the robbing of the land and its territories in the 60s? Shall we talk about the removal of Kenyan Asians from their businesses to hand over to the president's select? Shall we speak about the eviction/murder of Kenyans Europeans whose homes and farms were taken over by, again, the president's elect? The state sponsored bank robberies? The Central bank and treasury appointments? Do we dare talk about these things, Gathara? The wealth generation through the looting of the land and its souls in order to justify exceptionalism? Yes others are very much in collusion with this deeds of madness, but if we cannot talk about the genesis of this, we are wasting our time and just venting with no intent to heal anything.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-73611824160053772572016-02-27T20:48:47.804+03:002016-02-27T20:48:47.804+03:00In the world where $1 trillion is spent on bribes,...In the world where $1 trillion is spent on bribes, Kenya is nothing special under the sun. The reality is that social psychology is well informed about the mechanisms of corruption but still grossly under-applies its research to this issue. On the most fundamental level, the inter-personal dynamics cause individuals who feel a sense of commitment to their group or person committing the corrupt act feel an obligation to at least remain silent, if not participate. That alone would suggest that any society that is strictly divided into separately identifiable but interacting groups, such as after post-colonial superficial division of Africa or during initial phase of communism-to-democracy transition, are a near-perfect environment to self-corrupt.eworkflowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13651035753086527465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-26689650249762167032016-02-27T20:35:19.542+03:002016-02-27T20:35:19.542+03:00Ah Gathara, but it is about the narrative that has...Ah Gathara, but it is about the narrative that has been created, and by whom and for what purpose, and who gets to believe it, internalise it and then regurgitates it as reality. To be honest, we are not any more rotten than any other society, we are just more blatant and public about it as a society. Moreover, the purveyors of 'Kenya is corrupt' tend to be at the first level, the corrupt themselves (ergo, the president's statements in Israel). That way it eases the weight in their conscience. It is typical scapegoating behaviour, to collectivise the guilt, and shame so that a person does not carry it alone, and can make excuses not to act, and finds the perfect excuse "Kenyans are corrupt anyway. I am a Kenyan. So I must be corrupt." It means that we do not have to name names (the prerequisite act in a ritual of exorcism. The demons are personalised and have to name themselves, or they hide under the collective excuse 'we are legion). Kenya is not corrupt. The lions and mountains and seas are not corrupt. There are a few people who have chosen the path of rottenness, and the one thing we are also scared to admit to, is that the preponderance for this soul horror is the preserve (in the thought of most Kenyans, I assure you) of two 'certain community', and to dare to say so will unravel far too many myths we have built around our exceptionalism, and it would demand that the 'two certain community', undergo some very serious soul searching that would unravel far too many illusions around which the cultures have built their delusions. We need to have the courage to say, that so and so is rotten, and this is how and why. He or she is hiding under the umbrella of 'Kenyan' in order not to deal with his or her shit. He or she needs an intervention (as is done for the addicted), and this is the therapy required. To cut through the crap and name the demons. And to do that, we would need real Kenyans, the lovers of its best and perfect dreaming.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-11278405674724314692015-11-27T09:30:45.644+03:002015-11-27T09:30:45.644+03:00Intelligent way to look at it. But if we are to re...Intelligent way to look at it. But if we are to really access the tragic reality of corruption you'll see that it transcends tribe and religion. Calling it as it is does not mean assigning blame on the citizenship, the government still has a role to play. But I honestly do not see how to kill a monster that we feed in our dinning rooms without first refusing to feed it.<br />Should we call the government to account? Definately, but lets do so while dealing with our moral compas.<br />Refusing to do so is courting the death of our societyJosephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08612578440460761145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-8734351860946894532015-11-27T09:30:16.741+03:002015-11-27T09:30:16.741+03:00Intelligent way to look at it. But if we are to re...Intelligent way to look at it. But if we are to really access the tragic reality of corruption you'll see that it transcends tribe and religion. Calling it as it is does not mean assigning blame on the citizenship, the government still has a role to play. But I honestly do not see how to kill a monster that we feed in our dinning rooms without first refusing to feed it.<br />Should we call the government to account? Definately, but lets do so while dealing with our moral compas.<br />Refusing to do so is courting the death of our societyJosephhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08612578440460761145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32060070.post-88113595429215128942015-06-22T23:49:48.979+03:002015-06-22T23:49:48.979+03:00See it in this perspective, Culture is a "soc...See it in this perspective, Culture is a "socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. Culture is learned and shared within social groups and is transmitted by non-genetic means." Towards that end, I see it as a culture that we Kenyans have developed and embraced overtime to an extent that seeing a traffic cop take a bribe is more or less a normality. This is how I saw it https://eliudkibii91.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/corruption-culture-in-kenya/Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00201515264729455993noreply@blogger.com