Paying the price of letting leaders indulge in bad manners

(Photo: Courtesy)

Hardly do you get parents, especially in Africa, who use vulgar and inappropriate words within hearing distance of children. It is taboo. That is why when we have to say something about sex, we use analogies, metaphors or coded speech. Let's assume that 99 per cent of our leaders are parents, and that at least 40 per cent are grandparents. So, when they speak, bits of it may end up in the news, and the children and grandchildren are watching.

Having the privilege of being in a newsroom, I can't even begin telling you about the insults, sexual innuendos and vulgarity that we cut out from politicians' speeches. But then there is live coverage which is a bit tricky, but, you have seen that when some guys veer off to insults and potentially libellous speech, something else quickly comes on the screen. There is also a secret list of politicians whose mouths ooze violent and distressing language. At least three of them are known to take hard stuff before going to rallies where, when in delusion, they can, for example, declare themselves acting presidents or indefatigable party loyalists who can skin alive anyone standing in the way of their master or preferred candidate.

Vitriol

You have seen footage where the incoming governor of Kiambu (I can't be wrong on this!) Ferdinand Waititu, kicked a young man who stood in front of him. You also saw him join stone throwers in a protest. You have listened to the likes of Mike Sonko refer to their opponents as witches and madmen. Dr Boni Khalwale has no qualms engaging in issues of how virile he is in bed all round the clock. It rolls off his tweets (which are public) as if he is describing appetite for food. Senior leaders across the political towers are no different. Yet they epitomise role models for our children. If parents are teaching children to be civil, courteous and peaceful, but then this is the daily dose they get from our leaders, why do we get surprised when they barricade roads, burn dormitories and beat up teachers?

They look at our curse words in times of road rage as a fine example of how to guard your space and interests in society. The formula of life they realise quickly is aggression and vulgarity. They also learn to worship material things because we are an exhibitionist society that has no qualms about how money is made but are keener on how much one has. That is why some of the people we elect should actually either be in rehabs, mental institutions or simply in private homes and offices.

Then there is the promotion of ethnic stereotypes and chauvinistic language, not just by our politicians but also us the common folk, especially the latter-day comedians on television and social places. Now the total sum of our politicians nourishing us daily with foul language and bad manners, just because they forget they are parents once they hold the microphone, is what happened in Samburu's Kirimon Primary School.

Pupils turned up with their weapons, forced five teachers to kneel down and whipped them. They demanded they apologise for frequently sending them back home. Of course not many of them watch TV but they follow our politicians in rallies and on radio. After beating their  teachers, they wrote a letter to the ministry explaining their anger. See these three lines: "We are very sad that our school leaders are madams nowadays."
"Madams are the ones leading us to fail in our examinations as they chase us home."
"When you go to the staffroom to ask a question, you are chased away. That is why we have beaten up our teachers, especially madams."
Clearly these boys are captives of our pervasive influence and that of their culture, whose pillars are moranism and chauvinism.

Apart from being bad examples to our youths, some of whom at election campaign season politicians finance their drug and binging sprees, we also make ourselves a nation of never-do-wells and walking caricatures not so dissimilar from the vulture. We must demand common decency and finesse in everything our politicians do. We settled for less, we lowered the standards, and with these, our moral fibre went down the drain. That is why corruption, for example, is more of a heroic deed than a moral issue.

Mr Tanui is Deputy Editorial Director and Managing Editor, The Standard