The Kenyan Dream

Andrew Kinyua
Nov 3 · 3 min read

What ails the Kenyan society? A question that always lingers in my mind. The level of education in the country may not be best, however, one cannot claim it’s the worst. Then, why does the country seem to stagnate for the last 50 years. An introspective view on the issue points to a general moral decay in the society. The country has lost all the fundamental values of honesty, integrity and trust.

Importantly, the different point of views presented on this post, are not inclined towards any religion but on the answer to the question ‘What is morally good?’

Primary school examinations have been administered this week and security personnel were deployed in the schools in a bid to curb examination irregularities. Do we really need such security measures? It should be common to everyone to know that cheating in an examination is not morally right. Coincidentally, some of the people provided with the responsibility of ensuring that the examination is undertaken without any irregularity engage in such incidences. In the African society, elderly people were respected and honored as they had the responsibility to educate the young people on the right morals. Therefore, it is astonishing to see some of the older people not leading by example on passing right morals. Notably, the same ideology is reflected on politics in the country and Africa in general.

Public money accountability is one of the contentious issues to discuss with any public servant. The Auditor’s General report for each financial year indicate massive discrepancies in the amount of money provided to the institution with the amount spent. Additionally, the inflation of the prices of common items bought is mind-boggling. As noted earlier, the people tasked with the role of ensuring that there is proper use of the public money undertake the opposite. Why would people undertake such acts? The lack of proper personal and societal morals leads to such occurrences! As such, the people lack the moral obligation to ensure that they use public coffers sparingly. If every individual in the Kenyan society upheld integrity, trust and honesty issues such as corruption, nepotism and tribalism would not exist. Realistically, no country has achieved such levels, however, if 80% of the population upheld their values the country would progress in an exponential manner.

My country Kenya

Citizens need to change the morals in the Kenyan society. Brilliant innovation strategies that rely on the strength of the community to spur cannot be easily implemented in the country. For instance, a self-checkout system in a supermarket. The system would require the constant surveillance of people to prevent rampant shoplifting therefore not viable in the country. Additionally, most business enterprises in the country spend a lot of money on security investments of their assets. Over the last two decades, there has been an increase in the number of security firms due to the increase in insecurity. If a huge number of the population would condemn bad morals, then the country would change for the better and business firms would reduce money spent on security and channel it to research and innovation.

‘A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society’. Therefore, each Kenyan citizen needs to reflect on whether each of their actions contribute positively to the progress of the nation. I hope for a better country with each individual undertaking their moral obligation to ensure that the country progresses forward for a better future.

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