If you are born poor in Kenya, you are condemned to a wretched life

The numerous accounts of women who have faced the monsters at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) are as heartbreaking as they are infuriating.

I can’t imagine how heartless you have to be to even think of raping a woman who is still healing just hours after giving birth, but there are far too many stories corroborating these claims for them to all be tall tales.

So imagine my shock when KNH Chief Executive Officer Lily Koros accused these lactating mothers of lying in an attempt to defend the institution amid widespread public outrage.

READ: Outrage over rape allegations at KNH

When you’re poor in this country, even your own lived experiences are open to scrutiny and revision so that they don’t offend the important people at the top.

Why can’t you just be grateful that you had a place to have your baby at a price you could afford and ignore all the “minor” inconveniences that came with it?

Koros’ use of the “woman and mother” line to identify with these women is unconvincing because I’m willing to best my last coin that neither she nor her children are treated at the facility she runs.

That’s why I believe she is unlikely to know what ordinary users of its services go through.

DAYLIGHT ROBBERS

It is in this same city that daylight robbers are back on the streets and soon it will be impossible to withdraw money from an ATM or a mobile money agent without getting mugged.

A multi-agency task force will be formed, with senior security officials who have not walked the streets in a decade, to deal with the situation and it will probably arrest some innocent youth while the thugs continue to thrive.

Rich Kenyans don’t walk the streets, especially beyond Moi Avenue heading towards Tom Mboya lest they mix with the masses, so they can’t relate to this renewed insecurity. Rich people don’t own small market sheds in Eldoret where county askaris can manhandle them and trample on their wares in an attempt to relocate them.

They don’t shop there either because they can afford regular trips to the biggest mall in town when they are not splurging in Dubai. The wealthy don’t wake up one morning to find their stalls demolished and stocks destroyed by Nairobi county askaris like those around Yaya Centre did a week ago.

Only low-income earners risk getting kicked out of the only home they have known all their life by a private developer like the Nguu Tatu squatters in Kisauni. It is only the children of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid that are blown up by explosive devices in open fields in Banisa, Mandera County.

Children in Karen are not running into landmines that have been buried in the ground for half a century when they play outside their international schools. In fact, the offspring of the well-to-do don’t have their playgrounds grabbed by powerful people to turn into parking lots for their high-end hotels.

They do not have a defective new curriculum implemented before it is ready because they are stuck with public schools and their problematic “free” education. The 1 per cent in Kenya are not asked for bribes because they drive big cars that are not even stopped at police roadblocks lest the poor officers meet the wrath of an overbearing politician.

The shame at KNH is not just of a dysfunctional hospital, it is symptomatic of the anti-poor society that is Kenya. The criminal justice system, for instance, unfairly punishes the poor according to the Judiciary’s own internal audit. They almost always don’t have lawyers, spend long periods in detention even for non-violent offences and are more likely to be incarcerated for cases that would otherwise end in non-custodial sentences.

The education system rewards those with deep pockets because they can send their children to expensive private schools with dependable teachers and assured success later in life while the less fortunate make do with whatever the government gives them. Anybody can make it in Kenya, provided you’re born into wealth or privilege.

If the lottery of your birth condemns you to needy parents, your chances of escaping poverty are minimal in present- day Kenya, which exists purely to protect the rich from the poor. As soon as you elect your representative, they are assigned armed bodyguards to shield them from you.

Your matatus don’t run through the private roads of exclusive neighbourhoods and you are not even allowed to take pictures of the offices where your senior government officials sit. Despite what you might have heard, there are only two tribes in Kenya: the poor and the rich.

If you’re unlucky to be short of money, there are reminders everywhere that you are on your own because your life doesn’t matter and the life of your child certainly doesn’t matter. If you don’t want to have it so hard, just be rich and everything will work out for you.

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Send money from M-Pesa to Airtel Money

‘What is interoperability?’ a friend asked me of me on phone the other day. “Why are you asking me this?” I wanted to know.

Turns out an interview on television had that word on the title and she couldn’t immediately figure it out. Trials started on Monday for mobile interoperability, the ability of the services of the competing networks to “talk” to each other.

In simple terms, you should be able to send money from Airtel Money to M-Pesa or vice versa as easily as you currently do within the same network.

What was once considered a heresy by Safaricom, whose mobile money product has an enviable lead in the market, is soon to be a reality.

“Lack of interoperability has been highlighted as a major barrier to the development of the mobile money market. The strongest reason for enabling interoperability is the dramatic increase in mobile money transactions that will result,” a report by the financial transactions technology firm, eServGlobal, said.

This pilot project involves just 200 Airtel and Safaricom employees and will mean that money sent from the other network is instantly reflected in your mobile wallet.

Kenya is behind in this regard, by the way, because Tanzanian operators ticked this off back in 2014.

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Trump’s horrible first anniversary present

US President Donald Trump has had an extremely bad year in office. To make matters worse, his first anniversary in office over the weekend was probably the worst gift anyone could ask for.

The federal government shut down because he and Congress could not agree on a deal to keep it open. Then the Women’s March against him from last year was repeated in cities across the United States and around the world, as if to add insult to injury.

The man who styles himself as the ultimate dealmaker was unable to craft a deal to keep his own government open exactly a year after he was sworn in.

The irony is too rich to get into but he was probably too busy fuming to take note of the fact. Democrats want his administration to protect young undocumented immigrants who gained protected status under Obama before they can vote. Where’s all that he promised?

Send your comments to Larry Madowo at [email protected]