Kenya: Folly of looking East and other sad tales

There's an urban myth that 'may you live in interesting times' was a Chinese curse in whose context, interesting meant dangerous or turbulent.

The whole phrase is said to be something of a curse. Myth or otherwise, whoever lobbed this phrase at Kenyans must be laughing all the way to the bank.

Like something out of a low-budget, poorly-produced movie, we got treated to badly-behaved foreigners who in the 21st century, in our own post-independence state, dared to pull the race card. Worse, against Kenya, their host country.

Are we really, in a useless defiance to the West, still pegging our hopes on and 'facing East' as our saving grace?

And an even more shocking part is that it has to take public outcry for anything to be done against this establishment.

When did the law become about public relations as opposed upholding human rights? Well, at least that caused us mirth and angst in equal proportions.

The other spectacle we got exposed to was neither funny nor anything to throw money at. In an event filled with twists and turns, allegations of a rape, tied up with a doctor who administered involuntary HIV tests came to the fore.

And of course social media went wild. Regardless of what the truth is - I am not one to play the role of the judge, the jury and the executioner - one thing is certain.

The era of technology that aids hashtag activism is alive and well.

And even though we might use fake names to hurl insults and air our irresponsible biases and opinions, protected by the cloak of anonymity, by and large being able to read the mood of a nation at the click of a button is nothing to scoff at.

But just by way of a free tip, nothing you put on the internet is really anonymous. All it takes is a bit of cyber sleuthing to unearth your IP address, and by extension you.

The internet is an interconnected web and all it takes is a tech wiz to track you down.

But back to the shame bedevilling the nation, both ours as hashtivists and the accused.

As a nation, as a continent, we must start to adopt a no tolerance approach towards sexual violence.

The rallying cry - 'there is no excuse for and never an invitation to rape' - needs to be more than just a phrase.

As for those clueless two bits who dared to justify the circumstances behind the alleged actions, I only have this to say to you.

It does not matter that the woman in question was out at what you deem to be questionable hours, nor that she was alone. Refer to the statement above.

There is no excuse for and never an invitation to rape.

The cracks, nay the deep chasms, in our system are starting to show,  but I wonder if anyone cares. The rich are out there tenderpreneuring and getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. I have nothing against a good living well earned.

But make no mistake, when the oppressed masses that we call hapless voters get tired of being disenfranchised, there WILL be a revolution.

Which brings me to a question I've been asking of all my friends and acquaintances lately. How much wealth does one need? I am not being facetious, I am genuinely perplexed.

It is one thing to want to be wealthy, we all want to be comfortable and I'm certainly not painting money as the root of evil. But it is yet another thing to loot, plunder and pillage everything in sight.

Yes, I know that if you're living the 'looking-over-your-shoulder' kind of life because of all the questionable deals you've swung, you will need to amass enough wealth to pay off all your detractors; real and imagined.

And maybe it is our fault for sitting pretty when we have such a powerful Constitution within our reach. If we do truly believe that we deserve better than the cards we have been dealt, then we should start to utilise the tools within our purview to demand better leadership, a better quality of life and better enforcement of our natural rights.

I'm concerned about the message we're passing to our future generations; that as long as we have a blinged-out lifestyle to show for it, the blood we amass, the crimes we commit and the lives we take are fair game; that the end justifies the means; that living in a big mansion tainted with dirty money is acceptable as long as we have a fence high enough to separate the haves and the have-nots?

Only problem is, at some point, the have nots will get tired of looking at the high walls and decide to scale them. And then the revolution will come, only it will not be the good kind, at least not if you're on the other side of the fence.