As the famous adage goes, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
So, are people who do nothing good people? I wager they are not. As a nation, we are collectively evil, for the simple reason that the sum total of our actions results only in chaos, pain, crime, tax and death.
We have seen two governors mentioned in murder cases that are in court. We have seen a country suddenly debate the issue of the ‘sponsor’ lifestyle as though slay queens and socialites are news. By Jove! They have a TV show, a whole hour or so dedicated to the death of brain cells and the glorification of mounds of fat and skin bleaching procedures. We watched and did nothing. We are not good people, we are evil. The show is on air because it is watched by millions who do nothing, until a woman dies because of it. Why did she die? Because Robert Ouko died, we did nothing; Tom Mboya died, we did nothing; Jacob Juma died, we did nothing. Sharon Otieno is dead; will we do anything?
Common man
At the same time, we have proved that most of us could afford V Power fuel because the 16 per cent increase did not stop us from fuelling our cars, no matter the engine capacity. Once again our parliamentary leaders did nothing, until they discovered Wanjiku was crying under the weight, not of the fuel hike, but the hike of matatu fares. The 16 per cent increase in matatu speak is always a Sh50 to Sh100 increase.
Effectively, Kenya will once again be a walking nation as anyone who earns less than Sh20,000 a month can no longer afford to board matatus. In a short while, the price of unga will go up and once again leaders who have so far done nothing, will address the Press in reaction to the fact that they did nothing.
What could they have done, you ask? First, they should by now have created a public-owned transport system to shield the common man from matatu thuggery. They should have discussed with millers and ensured that the latter and manufacturers have tax incentives to shield them from the tax and ensure food and commodity prices stay stable. They could have slowly introduced the tax, doing a slow percentage increase from 2013, when it was first proposed. But they did nothing.
There is a poem I once read. It was entitled “They ran out of mud”. It showed how lazy a society could be. Kenya has now found an even lower state of existence. Kenyans have run out of common sense and dignity. We are part of an evil society that worships mammon and calls him god. We are a society that fills churches and crusades and give by the million because Jesus is coming soon, but comfortably forget the hungry neighbour. We skip over the poverty at our gates to go thank “God” in physical temples, in which He said he does not dwell. We do nothing to fix our world and country because Jesus is coming soon to take them all away.
So, because this earth is not our home, we do nothing about it. Instead, we go round attending crusades, crusading for nothing, flying to nowhere. I wonder when we will realise that 2000 years is not soon and that this Jesus is not coming back soon. Perhaps the reason is that this evil generation does nothing. No good deeds, no change in society. They even leave the venue dirty, yet Jesus collected buckets of breadcrumbs. ‘Do nothing’ religion is as bad as devil worship and must be referred to as such.
The king
Religion that is acceptable and true is to plead the cause of the widow, the orphan, the poor and downtrodden. It is not the one that rolls out red carpets to chubby preachers, it is the one that opens the door for a hungry soul. It is the one that speaks to the king for the poor, for the widow and the alien. Religion that does nothing about the needs of society is dead and rotten and, I dare say, evil.
Our politics is worse, I haven’t heard anyone in Parliament talk about ending poverty. Other than the Big Four agenda, poverty does not exist. Hunger is not a challenge and the plight of the Kenyan who can’t access healthcare is ignored. The eradication of diseases such as malaria is no longer a priority, yet it kills many. But we do nothing - for the many who die are poor. Unemployment is through the roof, Parliament is silent. There is silence all over, Kenya is corrupt, our CSs are quiet. Only the Director of Criminal Investigations, Director of Public Prosecutions and President talk of ending corruption. The rest are quiet or scared; doing nothing to prevent or report corruption. Our CSs have done nothing but watch corruption prosper under them. Like the policeman who lets a drunk driver drive on, CSs are widow makers and barons of our poverty. They are accomplices to murder.
It is true that evil prospers when good people do nothing. But we can do a lot. We can have a Parliament and senate dedicated to job creation, the fight against corruption and the ease of doing business. We can have central and county governments that pay suppliers on time. We can have civil servants who solve problems, not create them so as to facilitate graft. We can have crusades to clean up slums and collect money for the poor. We can have crusades that are not about going away but rather focused on creating a better world full of love and compassion for the needy and the downtrodden. Oh that we may plead more for justice than for money in our prayers!
Mr Bichachi is a communication consultant. bichachi@gmail.com
