If only the State fought corruption with the zeal it unleashes on youth

President Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua. [PCS]

The zeal with which the government floods the streets on demonstration days shows that it can fight. But this zeal is misplaced.

The scale of force used against young people armed only with a voice and a flag is not commensurate.

If only the government could redirect the force used against rightfully demonstrating young people to zealously fight corruption! In the corruption zone, 'snipers' are welcome. Let 'bullets'" ring until corruption lies lifeless, defaced beyond recognition in the morgue of vice.

The State's inability to accommodate citizens gathered publicly against it is a vote of little confidence in itself. The State is afraid that its people could point out weaknesses that are not imagined but real.

Telling the government to desist from evil and do what is right is not a crime; it is a civic duty! An authentic leadership can boldly explain its acts.

It is absurd that the government demands values from its people that it does not demonstrate itself. This breaks a basic rule of mentorship, parenting and all well-meaning leadership: live what you demand.

The apostle Paul knew that there are times when you become not just a signpost but the road itself: “Follow me as I follow Christ”.

The streets have become a place of contradiction: peacekeepers become peace breakers, escorts become attackers, and disciplined forces work alongside undisciplined goons, allowing red-carded incidents to play on, “Those who are not against us are for us!”  Those who praise the youth become their killers, sending them to their graves, and even a message of solidarity is squeezed from politicians as water from a stone.

This contradiction manifests too when the promise of a new Cabinet has returned many of the old. If they remain the birds of a feather that they are, forget any breaking news on reformation breakthroughs.

The timelines are against them. Since its swearing-in two years ago, the government has been asking for time, urging people to “watch this space” until the people waited too long for even the space before the watch to be set up—the screen took too long to erect.

Young people, the curious movie lovers, got worked up upon discovering the lie—the movie was never meant to play on the public screen. While the people waited in an outer room, the movie was already playing in a privately-booked theatre!

A government that is truly troubled by immorality minds the stench of corruption wafting through its operations. Among the nations of the world, such a country is considered an image-depreciating ally, only welcome in the black (illegal) market.

Our political leaders cannot sustain five minutes of an anti-corruption conversation. They quickly switch lanes.

Why? Because they are not anti-corruption! In the just-concluded vetting of Cabinet secretaries, several returning Cabinet secretaries should be generous and turn public rallies into coaching sessions on "Three Steps to Triple Your Wealth in 15 Months!"

In the twinkling of an eye, we would all be 'guzzling' our way to having 'Karenized' our dwellings and 'helicoptered' our savings! They are churchgoers—and whatever happened to the good old commandment, "Love thy neighbor as thyself"?

Despite the 'sustained fight against corruption' hype, corruption rages on, mocking its fighters. It has a more sophisticated arsenal than its fighters.

Its cloning speed spins way faster that its exterminators. The fight is only symbolic but never meant to be won. It is a show that something is being done despite the knowledge that the present setup cannot get it undone.

It is clear that the government can no longer rely on its own institutions to institute integrity. Two sources from where the values Kenya needs can be generated are the family and a genuinely prophetic church.

A general observation in Kenyan politics is that the family is hardly mentioned. Even when the president’s speeches mention 'our values', they are hardly articulated, with the most frequent one being suffering-oriented: “Kenyans are very resilient people.”

However, the unspoken truth is that this resilience is built by man-made scenarios of political sins.

As a long-term moral recovery strategy, the government must creatively invest in the family. Families are the watersheds of values, the 'deep sea' where the heaviest values are caught.

This will mean an output-based family promotion with increased values production as a key goal. If there is to be an honest population, families will play a significant role in producing it.

It also means distancing from stances that challenge the traditional family structure. Liberal embraces are largely perceived as disfiguring the family, and the Kenyan context as presently configured is far from ready to accept family variations generally accepted in Western contexts. The government must therefore seek context-friendly institutions to partner with that more directly support the traditional family as the country’s moral seedbed.

On the prophetic church as a values factory, the State House chaplains cannot be counted on. They have been overcome by political power. They have become entangled in benefits that have numbed their prophetic consciousness.

Regrettably, they have lost their potency and have reduced to lullaby singers, ego soothers and spiritual massagers. The addictive king's food has dissolved their saltiness. The perks language has overrun their spiritual language and replaced it with a pay-slip-friendly accent. According to them, God is with the king and for the king—others are demons trying to steal the king’s peace!

What these pastors forget is that the conscience of the king, like the black box of a plane, brings up self-accusing thoughts that reject “You are blessed” and instead resonate with “Repent!”

To generate national values, State officers must lose their appetite for feel-good pastors and be bold enough to listen to those who say, “Thus says the Lord.” For this, humility is not a choice; not a one-off tactic but a full-time form. Only then will the politicians take the much-needed trip to “Jesus by night.” They will walk away sad but not without having known the way.

Dorcas Oduor, the Attorney General nominee, has technical qualifications, but her peers introduced her to the country as a person of grounded values. It is this moral voice that makes someone worth listening to.

Many parliamentarians go on and on in their talk, but the lengthy discourse is often clouded by greed and pride.

The 'new' that young people are still demanding are national leaders who are character-heavy.

The country felt that if the Cabinet secretary nominations had been more honest and unhurried, Kenya could have found and enlisted more Dorcases, and citizens would be more at ease.