There comes a time.... When will Kenyans rise up against corruption?

By Sebastian Asava

There comes a time in the life of a nation when truth must be told, not whispered in hushed tones behind closed doors, but shouted boldly, with pain, with anger, with clarity and that time is now.

The Auditor General has once again lifted the lid off the cauldron of shame. Over Ksh 11 billion which has reportedly been siphoned through the E-Citizen platform. Money meant to make Kenya better. Ksh 127 million traced directly to individuals. Real people. Real looters. Real thieves. Not phantoms. Not computer errors. Real people, some of whom probably enjoy national praise, carry big titles, and sit in high-end SUVs guarded by armed officers funded by the very money they loot.

But this is not just a story about numbers. It’s a story of tears in Tharaka where children sit on stones and learn under leaking roofs. It’s a story of exhausted doctors, unpaid for months, expected to save lives without medicine or hope. It’s a story of public universities limping under debts. A story of a mother going without food. A family choosing between rent and medication. It’s your story. It’s my story. It’s Kenya’s slow death by greed.

And what do we do?

We clap.

We cheer.

We sing.

We queue for 100 bob at funerals while the people who destroyed our lives arrive in choppers bought with our taxes. We chase their convoys. We call them Mheshimiwa.

We look up to them, those who looked us straight in the eyes and robbed us clean.

Why?

Because we are selfish too.

We take everything too personally.

We want a cut. A token. A tender. A contract. A position. We’ve normalized corruption as a lifestyle “si kila mtu anaiba” is now our national proverb. Ooh Kenya my homeland! I cry for Kenya!

But where is our soul? Where is the humanity in us that should flinch at the sight of a starving child while money meant for food is sitting fat in a foreign bank account?

Where is our fear of God? When judgment comes, and it will, what shall we say before our Maker? That we stole in His name? That we robbed the people we were elected to serve, healed by pastors who received tithe from looted funds?

Who bewitched us? Why do we celebrate mediocrity and demonize honesty? Why do we praise those who lie to us and ridicule the few who still speak truth?

It pains me deeply. It hurts when we let a person buy our dignity with a crumb from our own stolen bread.

It’s sickening to watch leaders pose for photos in schools with no desks, promising heaven after looting earth. Too difficult for some of them building Sub-standard buildings to pocket back some change.

It is heartbreaking when a father dies from a preventable illness, and the same thieves who shut down the hospital arrive with flowers and cameras to "mourn" him.

It is high time we stopped this. We must say: enough.

Enough to theft. Enough to fake promises. Enough to glorified looters. Enough to buying helicopters while roads remain death traps. Enough to token politics.

We must begin to respect public offices again. We must demand that leaders earn their keep without stealing more. We must not treat public money like free loot to be shared by political cartels.

And as voters, we must stop promoting thieves. If they were MPs and looted, they don’t deserve to be governors. If they failed as governors, they do not deserve State House. Leadership is not a promotion ladder for conmen.

We must demand honesty. Demand results. Demand change. Our country is bleeding. Not because we lack resources. Not because God hasn’t blessed us. But because we’ve let greed rule over goodness, theft triumph over service.

Let us choose to be human again. Let us choose to feel. Let us choose to care. Let us rise and resist.

Because this madness must end.