(back at it again with the disorganised posts)
Recently, I used public transport to a particular destination. The transport price was usually 30 Kenyan Shillings.
I sat next to an innocent gentleman who- my eyes caught- handed the tout 50 Kenyan Shillings instead.
I assumed the tout would kindly give the man back 20 Kenyan Shillings. He did not. After a few minutes of reflection, the tout closed his hand.
He gave me back my change correctly- in an almost mischievous manner.
Knowing my moral conscience's bells, my head started to hurt. I was caught between a rock and a hard place: do I tell the passenger or I mind my own business?
Without thinking, I told him. The tout happend to have left the public transport briefly.
Later on the man confronted the tout and the tout casually retorted, 'You added me 20 Kenyan Shillings extra,' almost spitefully and ascended into an acerbic mood after that.
What particularly striked my mind were the thoughts swimming in my head on the next course of action:
1. I did not see anything.
2. I needed to mind my own business.
3. The tout would surely give the man back his rightful money.
4. What if the tout turned against me because he must have known I was the obvious whistle blower?
But the strongest thought was: 'What would my life look like if I simply ignored the incident and the man was deprived of his 20 Kenyan Shillings?'
The dread of my morality burned my head and I succumbed to fragmented, unstable thoughts.
And I did realise that the minute I told the man the truth, I felt very peaceful.
But more because the tout never got the chance to know the whistle blower.
Morality is a tough business. It's primarily the principles one abides by in discerning what's right from wrong and vice versa. Moral conscience- do good and avoid evil- is almost like gluing glass yet to shutter- it happens in the mind.
Kenya, my lovely country, has economic potential if you judge it by Western standards i.e. GDP and the like. We as well have a progressive constitution enacted in 2010 that accentuates the principle of separation of powers so generally we should be organised, right? Our Acts of Parliament if implemented would shoot us to the skies. That's the catch- 'if implemented.'
But our 'leaders' (leadership competence put to question) have kleptomaniac tendencies and will steal (the best word to describe it- public theft of public funds!) any monetary value they get their hands on. They as well believe that they deserve high salaries for work never performed.
Gathering all this- could our leaders have a broken moral conscience? And how does it break?
Like this: do not discern anything and create your own morality stance-
basically existentialism gone wrong-
only everyone's doing it so it feels okay.
Reference:
http://www.catholicity.com/catechism/moral_conscience.html
Written from a Kenyan perspective by a Kenyan about issues faced in Kenya- the kenyan’s opinion and views stand to be corrected and criticised constructively.
