The teeth in your mouth may bite your tongue; unusual but arrives in the company of immense pain. Kenya has been diagnosed with this plague.

African culture associates many things to the human tooth. The Yoruba associate healthy teeth with beauty. It requires magic to resist the mbanya on a well fed Acholi beauty. In their initiation festivals, Luos observed nago lak with wild celebrations. If the tooth did not inspire a proverb in the Zululand, it delivered a riddle in the hunting Khoikhoi. Just like seers and midwives, there were renowned dentists in our clans. In Kenya, the government trains and certifies dentists. This is not a profession for everyone yet all of us carry the specimen.

Kenya's tongue, economy, is bleeding, bleeding from the cuts planted by the teeth it hosts. Our system is corrupt that after draining our sweat, and blood, it now craves for our bones. We are sensitive to detect a decaying root but strong enough to withstand, defend the rot!

I don't know how to lead - but this is not how I want to be led. Why must we hoard condoms when the virus kills Kenya? In a year, corruption is estimated to cost our country over two million jobs. Nothing cripples entrepreneurship like corruption. Corruption dilutes the blood of sacrifices, drains the will of willing patriots and displaces the focus of the focused. It replaces the optimism and the hope - with despair. It distorts the ambitions. Yet we can't brush our infected teeth.

Yes, we can't brush our infected teeth. We have forgotten the checkup dates. The smell gives us discomfort but as long as we breathe, the breath does not matter.

The breath does not matter even when it is clear we are the molars, the teeth feeding the whole body. Politicians have consistently perfected the art to loot our country. And we have immunized them against impunity. Instead of prosecuting them, and recovering lost funds, we revere them for stealing from public coffers.

• .

  Keep Reading

• 
  Churches have right to decline donations that cause division and confusion
• 
  US announces first Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon under ceasefire deal
• 
  Ruto, Gambia President Barrow grace 61st Jamhuri Day fete

Like cancer and HIV, corruption has evolved into stages it can only be managed - not stopped.

The knowledge to manage corruption is not found in books; its chapters are wide open in nature for all to see, and synthesize. The ant is a weak insect but a powerful power creature. The insects invest their energies in building and protecting the anthill. Unite in service like the ants. Sting consciences like the ant to save our society from the pangs of corruption.

Leaving the war on corruption in the hands of the EACC and the Judiciary is like entrusting a lion with the life of a juicy antelope in the Savannah. Remove the corruption billboards in our institutions. My mind tells me 'You are now entering a corruption free zone' is a corruption hotspot. Abandon ethnic sympathy. Develop global empathy. Let the tribe die for Kenya to live. If we must forget, we must never forget we are the molars of Kenya. We don't need to be all dentists but we all need to brush our country's contaminated teeth.

The decayed teeth in our mouth should not bite our tongue frequently.