Lessons from illicit brew, and why the buck stops at a corrupt police force
Corruption has
been, and continues to be etched in our systems for so many years that it is
legendary. As they say, it is in our DNA. Everywhere you turn, left, right and
center, it’s the same narrative. Matatu drivers and conductors will part with a
few hundreds of shillings in order to bend traffic rules,(and put the lives of
commuters at stake). Police will arrest just about anybody and threaten to
charge them for commiting an imagined (and sometimes nonexistent felony)so as
to get food on their tables(They call
the chains(pingu)- legal tender), the city council askaris will collude
with unscrupulous housing developers to sell them licenses to build high-rise
buildings with the speed of lighting(and we complain when the same buildings
collapse and kill our people) and these and more vile activities, akin to
selling people's souls when they are unaware, continue daily unabated.
Consequently,
terrorists, muggers, thieves, poachers,fraudsters and all sorts of nobodies thrive in
such an environment. And you ask why there is insecurity in Kenya?
That explains the cacophony of grenade attacks, wanton killings of rhinos and elephants, bombs and
fiery day light robberies that have been synonymous with the country since
independence. They only seem to have gained momentum, half a century later.
But the worst came
early last week. More than 100 people perished after drinking illicit brew in a
number of counties. A spine tingling 35 people died in Embu County, previously famous for
hunting down an equally beleaguered governor and kicking him out of office, while scores of
others succumbed to the same brew in Makueni, Muranga and Kiambu Counties. The
brew was believed to have been adulterated with the lethal methanol, thereby
blinding and killing revelers in its wake.
This begs the
question, what role do the provincial administration, particularly chiefs, play
in the fight against illicit brew?
Yes, they should
ensure that unscrupulous brewers do not unleash killer brews to unsuspecting
members of the public.
How do they do
that? Is there an enabling environment to ensure that this happens?Let me cut you the slack.
A person whispered
to me that the chiefs and their law enforcing police officers are always bought
out by the brewers through heavy bribes.
What they do is
they enable the brewers do their job, of killing Kenyans especially in beer
thirsty highlands of Central Kenya, a population whose affinity for the frothy
liquid, and most of the times the hard liquors that leave them stinking like
skunks, is infinite.
So where do the
chiefs carry the blame?
Instead of doing
what they were retained to do, they, in cohorts with the bribe hungry police,
routinely visit the brewers to collect their share. Regardless of the dangers
involved, they simply let the money hungry brewers, who can go to any length to
make a kill pout of what they sell disguised as alcohol-go on a rampage and
kill at will.
People die, and
newspapers carry the usual headlines. Ten Killed after drinking illicit brew in
Kiambu, 16 blinded by lethal alcohol, scores dead, others blind after drinking
lethal brew….bla bla bla. End of story.
But when more than
a hundred can perish after drinking alcohol, and the sellers of the killer
alcohol cannot be traced, then, that is when we realize the pain of a corrupt
system.
The result is a
mixture of shock and disbelief. How can a drink kill so many people in various places
of the country at the same time? Was it timed? What was the motive? Whose fault
was it? Who should be sacked? What went wrong?
The answer is
within us. We have adopted corruption as part of our lives. We will shout
ourselves hoarse chanting away corrupt leaders (who are still made from the
same fabric as us) but when it’s our hour of reckoning, we are the first to
unleash a bribe to a police officer to avoid arrest over some freaky felonies
that we are well aware that we did not commit.
So did the chiefs
have to go? Yes and No for obvious reasons, but the larger devil lies with us
Kenyans, it is the corruption that is so deeply rooted in our bodies, minds and
souls that we eat corruption, think corruption, travel corruption, drink corruption
and talk ill of corruption as we pretend to all run away from corruption.
Where are the
police in all this? You might ask. The answer is well known by almost everyone.
This rare breed of law enforcers is the most corrupt ever. If reports by the anti corruption watchdog, Transparency International are anything to go by. If there were awards
from the most corrupt people in Kenya, they emerge tops, with no imaginable
competition within reach.
But the overall
prize for Africa goes to their Naija counterparts who are always in the
payrolls of the infamous rag tag militia terrorizing the oil rich country of
Nigeria, the Boko Haram. But there is a tragic relationship. Death is always
around the corner.
Away from that, if
we want to put our house in order, we must do something to the police to lower
their affinity for what is not theirs.
Allow me to, with
all due respect, acknowledge all our corrupt policemen and women for a good job
well done. YOU KILLED MORE THAN 100 with illicit brew!!!!
Photos: Courtesy
Photos: Courtesy
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