Some years ago a good friend of ours was called to the bar. At that time he told us about a professional goal to which he aspired. His aim? To be the most honest lawyer in Kenya! Anyone familiar with the situation in our country will agree that to have this kind of aspiration requires not only courage but a rare dose of integrity. Indeed, one of our news columnists, commenting on our moral decay a few years later, was to write: "Being an honest man in the Republic of Kenya is one of the most confoundingly difficult things a man can apply his mind to."1
Why is honesty such a rare virtue in our country? No doubt, different people will come up with different answers to this question. A majority would blame the ever-increasing level of poverty. That part of the truth does indeed lie here is witnessed by what happened to some priests traveling home from a church function recently. They were carjacked but the thieves, on hearing that their victims were clergymen, were so "kind" to give them bus fare. They also gave them their reason for the theft: "We have no jobs and we must have some way of getting something to eat and to pay for school fees."
The lack of good role models is definitely another reason. When leaders, who should be role models, engage in corruption on a grand scale, it is not surprising that those who work for them engage in petty corruption, giving as their excuse that "everyone does it." As a result, remarks one of our contributors, "… corruption in Kenya has found residence in the country's moral norms and has therefore become foundational."
What we are seeing at this deeper level is the absence of deeply held moral values. It accounts for the fact that people succumb so easily to the materialistic and individualist culture now being disseminated on a global as well as a local scale, a culture promoting selfishness and greed.
How did this change of culture come about? How does it happen that the African traditional culture—which put such a great emphasis on community values—is being so easily replaced by an individualism run rampant? Why is it that sharing, that preeminent African virtue, is no longer the spontaneous gesture that it once was but has become, in many cases, a contribution which the rich force upon the poor?
What is plain for any concerned person to see is that our moral and social development has not kept pace with our economic development. That the positive values which once ensured the well being of entire communities have been replaced with negative attitudes, attitudes which foster materialism and individualism. This has happened in spite of the fact that religion plays a very big role in Kenyan society: most Kenyans claim to adhere to one religion or another.
However, it is our values, not our religion, which will finally determine whether there is a way out of the moral morass in which we find ourselves. Those of us who are people of faith should examine whether our personal values belie the values espoused by our religion. And all of us should aspire to have such values as will bring about, not merely our own good but the good of our neighbour and of society as a whole.
We trust that the various articles in this issue will be of some assistance in helping us understand the various reasons behind our predicament. We may then live to see the day when honest lawyers--and honest people in other professions--will be the rule, rather than the exception in Kenya.
G. Wakuraya Wanjohi
1. Mutuma Mathiu in Sunday Nation, 2nd May 1999.
