The Wicked and Corrupt

Kenya is a beautiful country, and has a lot of great things to offer. In fact, a lot of volunteers come here and never leave. However, the longer I stay here the more I am reminded that this is in fact a 3rd world country and I have never witnessed corruption plague an entire nation to such a large extent.

This past weekend I was getting onto a bus, when two men shoved me from the front and the back. I pushed back, but when I looked down I realized my camera was no longer in my pocket, I had been pick pocketed for my first time. When I went into work and told my boss the story, he said that it was good that no one caught him at least. I was very confused.. of course I wanted the bastard to be caught, I wanted my camera back!

He explained to me though, that in Kenya if they catch a thief they will burn them alive. Not just the police either, it's considered OK for any group of people to burn a citizen who is labeled a thief. Most thieves actually would rather be caught by the police so they have the opportunity to pay an officer off to place them in jail rather then lynch them. Otherwise, a tire is put around their neck and doused with gasoline before being lit on fire. While my boss was telling me this, I couldn't detect a hint of anger or aggravation being raised in his voice, this in fact was his culture, and he found nothing obscene about it.

My co-workers all agree that corruption will forever keep Kenya from developing into a nation of that on the level of the US or anywhere else in Europe. They told me that if you are wealthy in this country you can basically get away with just about anything. All police officers are corrupt and can be bought off at the right price. The thing that disturbed me though, was that even a lot of charities suffer from corruption as well. I'm very intent on trying to sponsor this girl from a garbage slum and trying to support her education, but my host family explained to me it isn't that easy. A lot of charity organizations will just take your money and never use it to how it was advertised to be spent.

That is very sad to hear. A lot of people donate money with the purpose of trying to make a small difference, but it may never even reach the hands of the person it was intended for.

I witnessed corruption at its finest for my first time today. Another volunteer and I were in a taxi cab headed to the city. While we were driving a police office stationed at the side of the road motioned for us to pull over. When we did he peered into the car, and noticed my friend Rima in the back seat was not wearing a seat belt. He said with a stern voice, "Get out of the car!"
As soon as he said that our taxi driver punched the gas pedal with a vengeance and we sped off away from the cop as fast as the taxi cab could take us. I had no idea what to make of the situation, but the driver told us he was going to ask her for money, and if she refused he would have taken her off to jail. Both of us had no money on hand, so she likely would have been hauled off to jail if our driver didn't speed off!

Money is power in this country, and there isn't much in the way of laws to keep citizens from buying their ways into political power or out of a lynching. And it also hinders individuals with the best intentions from using their funds to its full potential. It's a problem that all of them agree will almost certainly never abate. As my co-worker says, "Hey, this is Africa!"