I was at work the other day, painting the map of Africa as
my colleague helped sick children with puzzles. She suddenly stops and asks me
why evil exists. I answered her without much thought that it’s because Satan is
not dead yet. She then asks me why it is so yet God is supposed to be
omnipotent and only good willing. Like, why can’t he prevent all this mess if
he is really good? This time I smile and continue with my painting. My mind
however wanders back to just how much people have wronged me, and how much I’ve
wronged people and how much innocent people suffer in the hands of ill meaning
perpetrators. That is why I want to point out at some forms of brutality
Kenyans are facing in this day and age.
Government Brutality
We all know that it is the governments mandate to protect
its citizens but our Kenyan government has failed tremendously in so many ways
that I can only break down as follows;
Police Brutality
Last month I found myself in cruel hands of Administration Police at Nyayo House when I was grabbed by the
neck and pushed to fall in a City Council manhole full of electric wires. All
this started when I arrived at the offices to collect my passport at around
4pm. The Policeman told me the offices were already closed so I questioned
about the notice I had seen inside the offices urging members of the public to
take advantage of the increased working hours up to 8pm. Instead of answering
me, he started talking alone referring to me as a stupid person who can’t
understand the simple term of ‘office closed.’ I asked why he was calling me
stupid and that earned me the humiliation of the year and threats of my life. They
also asked about of my tribe which added to the fury like gasoline in a bonfire.
City Council
Brutality
Everyone has been a victim of these men and women in yellow
or some faded ugly uniform. They dig huge holes just anywhere and leave them
open for vehicles to get stuck in, water to clog in for breeding of mosquitoes
or for children and drunkards to sink in never to walk again. They are always
harassing poor men and women doing their business in town. Lucky ones run
helter skelter leaving their wares scattered for people to step on as the
unlucky ones are arrested and locked up in City Hall cells where taps let water
in at night so they spend the night standing barefoot in ice cold water. The
next morning they are asked for huge bribes or taken before shrewd Council
courts and judged. The epitome of their brutality was when they arrested and
mutilated the genitals of a young boy early this year.
Thug Brutality
This is a very common vermin in the country be it in the
leafy villages of rural areas, dry lands of the North or in the streets of
urban cities. They range from brutal carjackers who stab passengers on their
way home to smart con men who take everything you have including your savings
from your account to your bus fare leaving you stranded in the middle of
nowhere. Others are coward thieves who pickpocket or spy on unsuspecting people
and run away with their property. I almost became a victim recently when I sat
in a matatu from Westlands at night.
I was dozing when someone tried to snatch my phone through the window but he
missed. Still in the same matatu, the
guy seated next to me slid his fingers in my pocket but wasn’t lucky because it
was empty. The next morning, I realized my bag had been sliced in attempt to
withdraw anything valuable, but nothing was missing because I only had my
drumsticks there anyway. Many people have been killed at their homes in the
hands of these thugs including the most recent killing of Kenya’s elite
photographer Mr. Greeves Cook.
Mob Brutality
This is brutality from citizens to their fellow citizens. It’s
mostly administered on social crime offenders such as thieves to an extent of
killing by stoning or burning. But some mobs have been attacking ladies deemed
to have dressed inappropriately by stripping them of their little pieces of
materials. Others are homophobes who attack people with different sexual
orientations!
Makanga Brutality
The late Prof. Wangari Maathai once said that
matatus are not democratic spaces. It’s true. Touts aka makangas dictate which matatus or buses leave the stations, the
intervals at which they leave, how many passengers get in, the amount of money
you pay ( which is always doubled if you are lucky, otherwise its tripled) and
when inside, they decide the music you listen to and sometimes where you
alight!
Domestic Brutality
Once they get home, some Kenyans face fresh atrocities from
the people they live with. Many children suffer physical and mental abuse at
home from their parents or guardians. We’ve seen children bruised or burned at
home. Some wives also are abused by their husbands even to extreme cases as
death. Husband also are not spared out as we have seen in the recent past,
large numbers of married men coming out to testify that their wives beat them
at home!
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the society we have.
There are places I haven’t mentioned because I would have to conduct extensive
and delicate research, but I can tell you places like prisons, schools,
churches and places of work are hubs of and dens of brutality.
"And if you didn’t
know now you know’’-Notorious BIG
