The Genesis of our Corruption

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. (Luke 12:15)

There has been so much talk about corruption that it seems as the only topic everyone is thinking about. And of course the amounts being peddled around are almost beyond simple minds.

But I beg to shift the narrative.

I want us to look at the cause of this corruption. And we will have to go to a source before Kenya became a nation/ state.

The colonialist came and saw this land and craved it. That greed caused him to colonize it, taking the best lands for his subjects and dishing the rest to the sell outs, people who for a pittance could sell their mother. And they did it. Some sold off their whole families to remain in the favor of the oppressor.

The only superiority they possessed to colonize was guns and subtlety; and of course they could buy loyalty for trinkets. And of course the narrative that they were superior beings than the African was a very useful tool.

The missionary was the peddler of that narrative, whether wittingly or otherwise. What with their painting everything African as retrogressive, demonic and evil and everything Mzungu did as progressive, Christian and godly?

We of course had the grossly exaggerated lie that continues to date about Africa being cursed because Ham was cursed. And I will try to open our eyes to it a little now by asking us to read the Bible instead of asking others to read it for you.

The first truth is that Ham was not cursed. Just read your Bible.

The second is, even assuming Ham was cursed, which of course is not true according to the Bible, do you realize that more people are cursed than Africans? Ham spread across most of Asia according to the Biblical record.

You will see Babel, the place where they sought to build the first mega city being in Ham’s domain. Nineveh was also Ham’s city. The Assyrians were Ham’s descendants, among many other peoples and places you will see when you decide to read the Bible for yourself.

We were therefore led to believe that God was against us because we were cursed long ago. We therefore deserved nothing but plunder and occupation.

The Second World War exposed the colonialist as just another human being, subject to pain and hurts. They were not in any way superior to any other race on the battlefield.

That is how the Mau Mau was formed to fight for the lands that were ‘legally’ stolen from them.

When the colonialist discovered that even with their superior weaponry they were unable to vanquish people in their land, and that the intellectual and moral political tide was turning against them even in their own land, they decided to infiltrate the enemy so that they could change the narrative. Then they could win the war even in losing.

They created new heroes, heroes who really were answerable to them so that when they ‘surrendered’, they were in effect handing over power to themselves through their people. At the same time, their enemy was convinced that they had won and recognized these prepackaged heroes.

What makes this plausible?

Do you realize that none of the colonialists gave up their lands? Even the ones who decided to go back home were compensated and their lands taken over by the new rulers.

Like I have said elsewhere, it was the Mau Mau who lost their lands. It is therefore not surprising that many refused to come out of the forest because they were not convinced the war was over. Some are still in the forest today.

That changed narrative is one cause of the corruption we are talking about today. People in the wrong were rewarded handsomely while the fighters for their lands were vanquished. In short, the ones who took advantage of their positions to benefit became the winners from all directions. Their children were able to access the best education and so got the best government positions all the while the ones who gave up their education and families to fight for the land that was taken lost even the little land they had owned before putting their people first, meaning that they were impoverished when the ‘independence’ they were presumably fighting for was gotten.

The message was released that a position is worth whatever advantage it opens instead of the remuneration or opportunity to serve it offers.

People do not campaign for positions to serve (though that is what they say), but to look for gaps to loot. People do not look for employment in government because they are patriotic but because the government has a bottomless pit of loot. That is why you will see a messenger in procurement driving a car his monthly salary cannot fuel for a week and live in a house that even if he had been given advance salary for 500 years he could not afford to buy. Sadly, he is used as the model of effort, the ideal rags to riches story. And we know that the kind of work he does will not allow him time to venture in business.

The most qualified teachers flock to public schools, not to teach but have all the free time to do other things as they rely on the government salary for security. What is wrong with earning without working? That is the question many government workers ask. They are more zealous for the extra tuition than the hours they are paid for because the parents will give them a tax exempt payment.

Like with all of human endeavors, there will always be a remnant. There are diligent workers in government. There are incorruptible people in some of those corruption addictive offices, some who are either killed or moved elsewhere for their stand so that others can eat.

That narrative killed our work ethic. We devalued effort and elevated advantage. We despised hard work and valued a relative in the right office.

That is the reason we have cheating in exams. A parent has no qualms paying for his child to get an A so that he can go to a course that can place him in an eating position. A student does not feel the slightest guilt sleeping with the lecturer to get a good grade because they have not done any studying.

Very few people have a problem with their sister being the third wife if the husband is a man of means. Many parents do not have a problem with their daughter or son having a much older sugar parent (called sponsor) if the same is loaded. Very few people will question a secretary sleeping with her boss if the boss compensates her adequately enough to overflow to them. Morals come when the hand is not sticky enough to lick.

We have the problem of sin. It is only that we have institutionalized it in our psyche that we are unable to see it eating away at our souls.

We will therefore make noise when someone is caught in a scandal yet have no problem voting for them when they pour some of that loot on us. We will make so much noise when someone is mentioned yet are unable to resist when he puts that envelope in our offering basket or brings it to our fundraiser.

We are greedy for gain to the point that we disdain hard or honest work.

Take this recent case. A person was injured in an accident and injured two places, one easy to treat and the other difficult. They went to a number of hospitals looking for treatment for the hard part until they were referred to this famous private hospital. Sadly, the same hospital continued to treat the easy part and neglected the reason for the referral.

When the family realized that they were not doing anything, they asked to take him to another hospital. But the hospital brought too many bottlenecks to make sure they did not release him.

Until he died without anyone dealing with the operation he was brought for.

The infuriating fact in the story, however, is the billing. According to the family, the hospital continued ‘treating’ him long after he died. Now they cannot release the body because the bill must be cleared in full yet the hospital really did nothing the patient was brought for. And we are not dealing with a backstreet pretense of a hospital but one with referral facilities.

Now the family is stuck because they can’t bury their loved one because of that astronomical bill.

There is this other one where another major hospital was at pains trying to explain their million shilling bill. A dying person was brought to the facility and in the short time between admission and death the bill had shot to a million.

A terminal case is taken to a hospital. Instead of the hospital telling it like it is, they put the person in their equipment until the inevitable happens and the patient dies. But the bill is now in the millions. Why could they not have told the family that they were paying all those millions to lengthen the vegetative state?

But we have a rotten work ethic that rewards short cuts and celebrates advantage, however unjustified or cruel it may be.

How many contracts are cancelled because the final signatory was not given reason enough to smile before signing?

It is interesting that even the church must use greed to call for giving. Imagine that there must be gambling (a raffle) so that people are aiming at the car they will win when they give! I am not even talking about the ‘seed’ doctrine and paying to be prayed for or prophesied to. And raffles are not a recent development. I remember them even as a child. Like I have said, the narrative is older than Kenya being on the map.

Until very recently, a call to ministry was looked at as evidence that someone has lost some of his marbles. And the reason was simple; there was no guarantee of any income, or income respectable enough to be noticed. To date there are people even in church who cannot be convinced that someone can be called to leave formal employment or close business to serve God if they are not being paid by a church.

Until the same spirit jumped into the spiritual and manipulated the same to make it just like the world. Preachers started paying people to be ‘healed’ and many other stunts to make the offerings start flowing. Ministers started valuing shortcuts and advantage instead of seeking God and what He wants of His ministers and ministry.

A pastor preaches sermons that will open floodgates of advantage for him as opposed to those that will give God’s counsel to people needing it. He would rather pamper sinners and continue receiving offerings than rebuke sin and remain with people who will not be enough to pamper his expensive lifestyle.

Forget doctrinal purity if it is not contributing to a healthier bottom line. Unite with the abominable if they will help you maintain your positional advantage. Remember the Pharisees uniting with the Sadducees and Herodians to deal with the threat that was Jesus?

Greed.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. (Ezekiel 16: 49, 50)

Valuing shortcuts and advantage against hard work will take us the Sodom way. We will have too much and no activity. And the human body and mind must be active. And we know that our hearts will normally lean towards sin.

That is where we beget sin and abominations.

Our national spirit is bleeding. And it is not just because of a few greedy fellows up there. Like the Bible says, the whole body is sick.

It is not the individuals and institutions that are to blame. We are all guilty from the way we look at opportunities and positions. And it is a major spiritual crisis that must be tackled before we even think of crucifying the outwardly guilty.

Is there a solution?

Of course there is. Many people will say that we return to what we were before the narrative was changed.

But I beg to differ. We are already too stained to be trusted to return to a past that was also not guiltless, however better it may appear compared to the present.

The Gospel is the solution. We must bring God and His standard to take charge of our polluted standard. He is the only one capable of not only redeeming it but also completely transforming it. And He does it by transforming our minds and hearts.

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)

Only then will we be able to tackle corruption as we will have first purged it from our spirit.

Otherwise

There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked. (Isaiah 48:22)

We are on a self-destructive path. And we have no hope of sorting ourselves out, however genuine our concern is.

We must come up with a new narrative, not rewrite or modify the present one.

The new narrative must have Christ occupying the central position.

Why do I say so?

As the creator, He is the one most pained by the injustice corruption visits on the weak and defenseless.

He is hurt when the dam bursts and leaves children as orphans. He is the one who feels more pain when people are sleeping outside because their shanties have been flattened by the tycoon who grabbed the land on which they stood. He understands the pain families have when they are unable to bring closure to the death of a loved one because the hospital has detained the body until their millions are paid.

As the One who died for the sins of the world He understands the debauchery that is the product of reaping where your sweat is absent. And He loves you enough to want to save you out of that folly. Above all, He is ready to save you from such wasteful and destructive folly, especially because He knows where it all leads.

We must give Him the chance to take over our lives, completely. He must be allowed to run the narrative of our nation.

I do not think we have a better chance

I know some will say that this solution is simplistic, that corruption must be dealt with ruthlessly.

But we have our hearts to deal with first.

Taking the corrupt to the firing squad will instill fear, but with the kind of hearts we have, it will only be the fear of being caught.

But there is an even worse problem. Many innocent people will go to that firing squad. I have been framed falsely and know not just how it feels but how it happens. I have friends who stayed jobless for over five years as they fought to prove their innocence after they were sacked for corruption. By that time the criminal had time to cover his tracks.

Remember this policeman who was jailed the other day. And what was his crime? Doing his work.

I remember for the first time a whole estate demonstrating for a whole week in defense of this policeman when he was arrested because he had rid them of a nuisance who had been a pain in their neck for long. He was not only a thief; he was an untouchable sort of thief because he came from a family of means. You arrest him and the next day he would come not only to laugh at you but also issue threats, threats that were not in any way empty. It is the same money that have put the policeman in prison because all the witnesses testified in his defense.

In my last post (politics) I mentioned a few other incidents where justice is not a straight line, unless for the people with the kind of money to straighten it.

I didn’t know a criminal can go to court and pay a bond to block his arrest!

It is our hearts that need the changing. And only Christ is able to do the changing.

Will we accept Him?