From Sodom to Gomorrah by bus
What you need to know:
- There is no problem with the law. Article 10 of our Constitution spells out our national values in beautiful fashion. There is also a whole Chapter 6 on integrity. Our Penal Code is clear and comprehensive.
- Could it be parents who not communicate with their children, who are too busy with the important things of life and forget what really matters?
- These boys and girls took the wrong path. Someone may have led them into it, or maybe there was no one to prevent them from going into it.
"Why go to High School when you can’t go to school high." Thus read the motto on KCC 586M.
Its license was withdrawn and the driver and tout arrested, but we may never know the name of its owner.
“Cash rules everything around me”, the bus read. The complete matatu slogan was taken from the infamous lyrics of “Young, Wild and Free” by Wiz Khalifa:
“So what! We get drunk
So what! We smoke weed
We’re just having fun
We don’t care who sees
So what! We go out
That’s how it is supposed to be.”
Many people, including the parents who attended to the call by the police, tore their garments and rolled their eyes at that bunch of boys and girls who had no garments.
The youngsters thought it was fun and the media too. Everyone made a hullabaloo. How could we have gone so low?
This is no surprise! It was bound to happen. It has been happening and it will continue happening unless we change what we don't want to change.
The first reports made reference to the law. Do we have the right laws to protect public morality? Some even spoke of making changes to the law.
There is no problem with the law. Article 10 of our Constitution spells out our national values in beautiful fashion. There is also a whole Chapter 6 on integrity. Our Penal Code too is clear and comprehensive. Sections 139 to 169 deal with offences against morality.
'MIRRORS THAT REFLECT'
Additionally, the Public Service Values and Principles Act as well as the Leadership and Integrity Act are quite detailed on principles of honesty, integrity, ethics and whatnot.
Practically every law in Kenya deals with offences, with integrity and honesty. It is all in the law.
Clearly, this is not a law problem but goes far beyond the law. We may tear our garments now, but there are deeper things we tore long ago. So, what is missing?
A policeman inspects a Nairobi-bound bus that was impounded and taken to the Kiangwaci police post in Kirinyaga on August 6, 2015. A secondary school student recently pleaded guilty to possessing bhang after 45 of them were arrested for being drunk and engaging in sexual activities in a public vehicle. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
We have to look at ourselves in the mirror. The behaviour of our youngsters is a reflection of the behaviour of mature people and of their role models, parents and teachers. This is typical of adolescence.
Adolescence comes from the Latin adolescere, meaning, "to grow up". It is a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to the age of majority.
It brings with it bodily and mental changes, a sense of identity and personal conflicts which may take many years to settle when there is no helping, mature mentor at hand.
Lack of identity, personality and crisis of self are characteristics of adolescence. They are just mirrors that reflect what's put in front of them.
The sad truth is that we deal with deep problems in shallow ways. We have jailed the driver and tout, but where are the parents and teachers?
Where is the matatu owner? Are there other matatus dedicated to transporting teens to Sodom?
What has failed in the family? Could the problem be with fathers and mothers who do not walk the talk, who are not good role models?
Parents who do not communicate with their children, who are too busy with the important things of life and forget what really matters?
ABSOLUTE FREEDOM
A witty quote is attributed to Epictetus, a Greek philosopher: “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
Many parents have stopped listening to their children and the role grandparents used to fulfill has fallen into a vacuum.
This vacuum is filled at best by social media, and at worst by pornography, drugs, casual sex and alcohol.
Certainly, one of the most delicate and difficult aspects of modern day education is the shaping of freedom and building character.
Freedom has been turned into an absolute, a goal, when it is really a means to something. Everyone wants freedom, but freedom of what, from what and for what?
These children and their bus were looking for freedom. The freedom society and the mass media promise: freedom from responsibility, the freedom of casual sex, freedom from worries and concerns, the freedom of alcohol, freedom from an uncertain future, the freedom of drugs.
This could sound moralistic, preachy or simply superficial, but this bus incident is an alarm signal of deeper realities. We need to ask ourselves a few questions about our family structure, education system, character building and media content.
These boys and girls took the wrong path. Someone may have led them into it, or maybe there was no one to prevent them from going into it.
They took the bus from Sodom to Gomorrah. Perhaps they haven’t reached there yet, but they, and we, are so close!
Dr Franceschi is the dean of Strathmore Law School. [email protected], Twitter: @lgfranceschi
