Fury is fine, but when shall we take charge of our lives?
THURSDAY’S BACK PAGE headline in the Nation, “Anger over rise in road carnage”, was a masterpiece of understatement. According to police reports, at least 1,000 people died in road accidents from January to April. And 10 died every day in May.
We are either totally reckless and have little regard for life, or we have learned the hard way that the bad guys always win and the rest can go hang.
It has also been a week when we got rare tough talk from President Kibaki, who, in his Madaraka Day speech, railed at the police for failing to stop accidents and death on our roads.
The touts, matatu drivers and their employers were not listening. In television interviews, many were in a jovial mood, not even bothering to conceal their identities. They gave the impression that they were used to such fighting language, quickly followed by business as usual.
More than 10,000 drivers are reportedly arrested and taken to court every month. The punishment meted out must be more of a slap on the wrist than a pain in the backside.
Besides, there is little talk of accountability of the owners of the vehicles, many of them prominent Kenyans who may well include police officers.
Road carnage is a story we have lived with for far too long. We have the data. We know the faces behind the statistics. We have been told that the traffic police commandant wants more money to spend on things such as Alcoblow and whatever else might clear reckless drivers off our roads.
What the President et al do not appear to have taken into consideration is the fact that we love to live dangerously. It is like we have been programmed to have little or no expectations of the leadership, and have lost the hope of gaining control over our situation.
We can invest in equipment and jam police cells with drivers and conductors with a death wish, but we cannot run away from the fact that our wounds are self-inflicted.
What is to be done with the passengers who get into ramshackle vehicles and keep mum as the crew break the road rules blatantly — or the drivers of private vehicles who will cut corners even as traffic police conveniently look the other way?
We have never been able to wrap our minds around the mayhem on our roads for one simple reason: The public transport industry is a reflection of the society that we are. We are a suicidal nation — from the way we do politics, to the way we socialise and conduct business, and even in our private lives.
OUR PEOPLE APPEAR HELL-BENT on making their lives as chaotic as possible, on and off road. From worshipping godforsaken politicians to young women who think little of exposing themselves to HIV and Aids and then pop the emergency contraception pill into their mouths like sweets, we are determined to gamble with our lives every day.
With all due respect to Mr President and the families that live with the anguish of losing loved ones so needlessly, we cannot hope to rein in chaos on the road when our politics is so chaotic.
Just for a while, when John Michuki was in charge of transport, we got a glimpse of what life could be if we played by the rules. We should have cloned him when we still could.
President Kibaki should get flaming angry more often. The problem is that his bouts of temper do not last, and we quickly lapse into our bad old ways. Some we appear unable to shed altogether, like letting the political class run rings around us.
Since the President has a legacy to think of, here are some nasty habits he might also want us to ditch:
Fear of thinking independently: This presents itself as the ethnic card, and is probably going to be a hard nut to crack, but you really must encourage us to get out of the herd mentality, which means that you often can predict, without a word being said, where the people of which region and which alliance will vote on national issues. Tell them that no one will be spared should Kenya go to the dogs. The blood shed will be one colour — red.
The art of doublespeak: We seem to be especially fond of saying one thing and doing the opposite. We say “yes” during the day and quietly give the thumbs-up to “no” during the night. It is too confusing for ordinary citizens, and might lead to the herd stampeding — and destroying everything you have worked for.
Dirty tricks: You must be aware of the cash crisis at the secretariat of the Committee of Experts and the likely impact it will have on your pet project — the constitution — which some in your kitchen Cabinet appear to view as a political threat. You might need to get really angry again if the purse-strings are to be undone enough for civic education to take place effectively.
There are thousands other things to get furious about, ladies and gentlemen, and you are welcome to make additions to the list.
