Stealing from road accident victims proof we are a nation of thieves at all levels of economy

Saying that Kenya is a risky place for victims of road accidents may sound like an exaggeration for people who like to turn a blind eye to the ills committed by ordinary people in the community.

In other countries, when there is an accident, these ordinary people would rush to offer help, and that includes informing the authorities with an aim that lives, and property be saved.

Of course that may not be possible, thanks to our wide roads and the narrow minds that use them. This just means when there is an accident, rescue teams from the county or national government may not arrive fast enough because there will always be a gridlock, caused by motorists who slow down to stare and those avoiding pedestrians running toward the scene of the accident.

Also, the response time is always slow because there are neither adequate personnel nor equipment and many a time traffic police officers have to try and coordinate onlookers to help with their bare hands and their actions may lead to more injuries because they do not know how to handle accident victims.

There are people who might have the know-how, but their first instinct where there is a road accident is not to help the victims, but help themselves to the property of the victims.

They ransack the vehicles looking for money and valuables or any moveable item they can lay their hands on, be it food, phones or even items of clothing. In the event the vehicle is a truck, their work is made easier because its contents will be all over the road, and they will easily spirit them away as it happened on Friday when a truck ferrying maize flour turned turtle on one of Nairobi's wide roads.

There were virtually no reports of the driver or the loader. The news was how ordinary people rushed to spirit away, nay steal, the bales of flour.

Ideally, those are thieves, and they are all around us, but we only have the guts to complain about the ones we elected.