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Ours Is A Lawless Society...


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.



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