It is quarter to ten in downtown
Nairobi, the crazy traffic has eased up with still a few people trying to catch
a bus or matatu home.
Suddenly the scene changes, a matatu
drives fast and carelessly, suddenly stopping in the middle of an intersection
on the Tom Mboya - Ronald Ngala streets. The matatu has blaring music, its horn
is on permanent hoot mode, the neon lights are sparkling in the dark changing
from red to green to yellow to white. All the while, tens of young men in the
matatu are screaming and shouting at anything and everything, sticking their
bodies out of the windows yelling all sorts of gibberish.
I soon realize it is a new matatu
... "Fresh from the kitchen" they say ... It is called
"nasty" the name displayed all around in different sizes alongside
colorful graffiti. It is being presented to the city-the world for the very
first time ... People must celebrate the new mathree!
Suddenly another matatu drives and
stops right in front of the matatu of the moment - a terrible mistake. It is
visibly an older one, less colorful but playing equally loud Jamaican dance-hall music. It is trying to weave its way through traffic that has now piled up
thanks to the blocked intersection. A group of youth quickly jump off the new
bus and block the old matatu's way. It is a huge sin to block the fresh new
matatu's grand entry ... In all its magnificence and splendor!
The youth now agitated rough up the
driver and his assistant tout letting him know that he ought to have observed
and "better recognize"! It gets nasty, curses are exchanged, fingers
are shown, hands are thrown ... The driver realises it could get worse. He
quickly speeds off on the wrong side of the road almost hitting the youth in
the process. He suddenly breaks as he comes head on with oncoming traffic. He
swerves further right, on to the pavement, then takes a wrong turn on a one way
street. He drives really fast through the narrow streets, reappears on the
other side and speeds off while increasing the volume of the already super loud
music. He stops down the street to pick up more passengers though it clearly
looks full. It is a forty seater matatu.
There is absolutely no difference
between the driver and the loud youth in the new ride, the driver speeding off
precariously fast on the wrong side of the road carrying excess passengers, and
the gun trotting - grenade hurling radicalized youth carrying out terror
attacks.
We shudder when shown images of
Kenyans lying face down in the middle of nowhere (as that is how we all
perceive Mandera to be) with their heads blown off, but view as near normal
when matatus and even private car users break the law so blatantly reigning
terror on our city roads.
The only difference between these
drivers and the grenade hurling youth is that the drivers have not rolled off
the highway as yet killing all on board.
Ours has become a society that has
no regard for the rule of law. From the top leadership down to our family set
ups, breaking the law has become the norm and it is bound to be worse with the
younger generation fast learning and perfecting our ways case in point the
“Gaza boys” that whimsically terrorized residents of Kayole estate for quite a
while.
From stripping women in public, to
defrauding church faithful, taking and offering bribes, grabbing land at will,
killing extra-judicially to name but a few examples, we as a society have made
a sport out of breaking the law.
We are a lawless society and until
we appreciate the role of law in society, until we recognize the value of the
rule of law, it will only get worse.
Comments
Post a Comment