Greed will tear our society apart

The late Professor Ali Mazrui, in the Annual Mazrui Newsletter No. 27 — which was a 70th birthday special edition — observed thus: “I suffered the aches of old age but enjoyed the privileges of being an elder.”

I reflected on these words when it was reported that one Joseph Wanjau had allegedly pocketed Sh2.8 million meant for the reconstructive surgery of baby Fidelis Muthoni.

Basically, he was denying the baby an opportunity of ever being an elder or enjoying privileges of being an elder.

Elders and children occupy enviable yet precarious places in our society. They are vulnerable.

Just as senior citizens enjoy the privilege of being elders, children should get pleasure of being innocent and trusting.

This is not the case in Kenya today, where they stare in the eyes of people whom they trust — Wanjau is supposed to be the uncle — yet the same people are only too eager to break their hearts.

This incident is only symptomatic of the greed that will soon swallow the remaining sane part of our society.

It is incredible how people are willing to do anything including, but not limited to, killing children, duping the needy and selling Kenya to the highest bidder!

Otherwise how would you explain the terror suspects that are our own brothers and sisters and who do not hesitate to kill Kenyans just for money? How can a man conspire with his wife to kill their aged mother just to inherit land?

Just like Tekayo in Grace Ogot’s story by the same name, we are hooked to this drug called greed and our commitment to reason is hanging by a thread.

In Tekayo, a grandfather — Tekayo — was off to the grazing fields when he scared an eagle into dropping a liver which he later roasted and ate as lunch.

The liver was very delicious; it filled him with an insatiable craving for more and this led to his moral disintegration. Slowly, he detached himself from his family, his passion that was looking after cattle and his community as he endeavoured to satiate himself.

The search for the delicious liver made him go beyond what was socially acceptable: he ventured into the Ghost Jungle. Before he did this, he was impatient, even to his once treasured cows.

Tekayo made it impossible for the cows to graze. “He rushed them along, lashing at any cow that lingered in one spot for long.”

He lost all care, leaving the cows unattended once he reached the Ghost Jungle and later the cows went home, heavy with milk, without him.

Greed could not leave him alone. It gnawed at his soul, destroying him one piece at a time. Tekayo could not heed the warning signs which included his encounter with a leopardess, an animal considered a sign of bad luck.

Instead, greed took his hand and led him to a dark place where he could not see what was ahead of him. He consumed what his clan considered taboo: livers of a lion, a leopard and a hyena!

Greed made Tekayo kill his grandchildren who trusted and loved him. He started with Apii, his eldest son’s daughter.

“And while she was fumbling in a dark corner of the house looking for a clean calabash, strong hands gripped her neck and strangled her.” He ate her liver and “... alas, it was what he had been looking for many years.”

Tekayo lied to his son and then killed another child “to satisfy his savage appetite.” And he lied again. Finally, his sons kept watch — ironically to protect him too — and it was Apii’s father who watched Tekayo try to kill another child.

He restrained Tekayo, arrested, dragged and “... pushed the old man into the little hut and barred the door behind him as you would to the animals.” It was only after this hideous crime that Tekayo came to himself crying, “What have I done? What have I done?”

Consumed by guilt and shame, he committed suicide.

The profundity of Ogot’s remarks on greed cannot be overstated. She demonstrates clearly that greed is like an addiction to a drug. The search and desire for more of the drug is only the beginning of self destruction.

Unfortunately, just like in Tekayo’s case, greed ensures that those around the perpetrator suffer, starting with the most innocent, and who, like Tekayo’s grandchildren, are the future of society. A voracious animal, it will not stop until it shames the perpetrator by finally peeling off the mask and exposing him or her for who they really are. Finally, it destroys its handmaiden.

We have witnessed greed overtake Kenyans. Some grab land as others squander public funds. There are those who prefer stealing from their congregation while others obstruct justice by taking bribes from criminals. In the short run, this compulsion to take as much as the hands can hold will seem profitable and give a sense of satisfaction — for a while. And just like Tekayo, there will always be the urge to amass more. Unfortunately, greed blinds the perpetrator and he or she will not realise they are “eating their grandchildren’s livers.”

By the time they come to their senses, it will be too late and they will be too ashamed to beg for mercy. Instead, they will beg to be banished, destroyed only for justice to take a while.

Like the villagers in Tekayo, we will only shake our heads. “Such a man would have to be buried outside the village ... no newborn would be named after him.”