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Jackson, Mississippi, USA - I grew up next to a forest on the slopes of Aberdares (now called Nyandarua) Mountains, North of Nairobi, Kenya. The forest was thick and primeval. Wild animals, some with canines [in their pack], and famous for their ability to kill their prey, roamed free. Occasionally they would stray into our farmyards and kill our sheep or cattle. But my living memory there is no record of someone killed by any of the wild animals. That peace, [an] unwritten armistice between man and beasts has remained intact to this day, fifty years after we settled on the windward side of the mountains. It is the armistice between man and man that has never been kept.
X.N. Iraki It will forever remain a mystery why man kills his fellow man, when it is a fact that some day, we shall involuntarily find our way under the sod.
We long for the day??when [that] next?sentence will?only be part of popular history."About 95 per cent of those killed (by violent crime)?in Kenya are productive, either employed or people in business. The damage caused to the country's economy by the destruction of life is enormous ..." says the Daily Nation.
There?can't be more effective way to kill a country t han this. There can't be a better time to act than now.
I recently asked a friend of mine when he is going back home after his studies abroad. His answer was simple and expected, "Why should I go home to die a violent death?"
I shall also be home soon and nothing worries me than a violent death -- not death itself. Those who read the Kenyan newspapers may be forgiven for thinking that the country is in a state of [near-]anarchy. Do we give evil doers undeserved publicity in our media?
To be sincere, cases of violent death are reported in my state, Mississippi, but that does not stop people going on with their day-to-day business; they know the police will get to the bottom of the matter. Currently the police have opened up a case involving murder that took place in 1964. Criminals here know they cannot get way with it, no matter how long it takes. The public is usually willing to cooperate with the police. A recent strange case in Mississippi is where a lady allegedly paid someone to kill her husband so that she could get 100,000 US$ for insurance. The alleged hired killed reported the matter to the police.
In Kenya, I think, it has become too easy to kill. And get away with it.
Why is violent death becoming too common? What can be done about it?
It has been suggested that every regime change is followed by a state of lawlessness as the old order gives way to [a] new order. Remember South Africa after independence? Others suggest the violent crime is the work of a "third force" out to discredit the government so that, in 2007, it will be very easy for a new regime to come to power.
Yet others suggest that mungiki, an amorphous group, and others who made money by extorting money from us on the road are taking revenge on the innocent, [because] they cannot reach the powers that removed them from this lucrative business of [reap]ing where they never sowed.
But it is a fact that there is a large pool of idle young men in Kenya, ready to try their creativity and skills on something, not necessarily good. This group, it has been suggested, have a grudge against the society that they feel has denied them jobs and chances for upward mobility, [and] hence target those they consider as "lucky" -- the employed and businessmen.
Traditionally, negative behavior like crime has been constrained by four institutions, the government, church, school and the family. All these institutions have a problem of their own. They are all under attack, thanks to the changing times.
The government is busy; it is consumed by internal wrangles and has little time to focus on issues critical to the society like crime. It has been busy making promises it cannot keep like creating thousands of jobs. Government creates an environment conducive to creation of jobs, it does not create jobs. But the government's greatest failure is not making us feel good about ourselves. Nothing can be a better weapon against crime than patriotism, a feeling that we belong to the country, we are shareholders.
The Church has looked with dismay as the youth have left the church in droves, citing irrelevance and competition from competing lifestyles.
The school is plagued by hopelessness, as uninspired teachers fail to inspire the next generation.
The family is a victim of the same changing lifestyles; divorce and single parenthood are seen as virtues.
The failures of these institutions have left a moral vacuum that evil doers have exploited, often to their satisfaction.
The cost of letting evildoers have their way as good people do nothing is not small. An economy is driven by its peoples' creativity, knowledge and skills. Creativity, knowledge and skills take time to accumulate, hence their cost. Such skilled people work in a connected or a networked world. So by killing one, you destabilize the whole system. A dead accountant was working with other accountants, with auditors, with his family, with his friends, relatives and may be other people beyond the borders. If he dies, all those contacts have to restart or re-align, this is costly. Imagine making a business deal and then told your contact is dead?
But the bigger cost is discouraging people. If I know my business will be raided, why should I start one? If I know I can die any time after coming home to Kenya, why should I return? This sets a cycle; with no one eager to invest, fewer jobs are created, there are more unemployed and the pool of idle people eager to be recruited into evil missions increases. It suddenly becomes more profitable to do nothing. Those who can leave, leave, and they happen to be the most educated and most skilled. This makes those left want to follow suit, it even becomes fashionable to leave the country ...
Once a country reaches such a stage, economic growth is held hostage.
What can we do?
Clearly this cycle must be stopped and now.
In the short run, make it unprofitable to get into crime. Currently it is very profitable. If I can raid a bank and make KSh 20 million, which most people may not raise all their lives even if they saved all their earnings, why then should I work?
As the daily Nation reported, we have not invested enough in our fight against crime, but the killers have invested a lot, including in buying guns. They have invested time in plotting their acts. I suspect they have invested substantially in conspirators either outside the police force or within the police force. There is no way you can keep a gun for an year without someone knowing. In fact in most places, all gun owners are known, but people are too scared to report [them] because the gun owners will [seek] revenge and the police may not move quickly enough to protect [the whistleblowers]. Crime thrives in places where mistrust reigns and justice systems are shaky. We probably need?to invest in institutions that will outlive us, and ensure trust.
We have invested little in technology. In the U.S., you are watched everywhere. You find no guards in banks, because if you raid it, you will be caught somewhere by security cameras. In other countries, undercover police do very good work, and as the U.S. learned from the terrorist attack, nothing can compete with human intelligence.
Without the public assisting the police, who they don't trust, criminals will always have their way. They could even use the money stolen to hire lawyers in courts, hopefully not pay judges.
How many more must die before we act? 3000 Americans died in the September 11 attack that led to a war in Iraq where another 1300 have died. This totals to about 4,300. In Kenya, the daily Nation reports we have 4467 violent deaths since September 11, without war or a major terrorist attack! It seems there is something seriously wrong ... Are we making death a part of life?
In the long run, we shall realize that the best way to deal with crime is to deal with the causes -- the way we think, our attitudes and idiosycrancies.
The first cause is the surging population. No matter how creative our government and private investors are, we cannot create jobs for a population growing at the current rate. We need to take responsibility of our lives, including our sexual lives. If we all get families we can afford, we shall likely take care of them in a manner that will deny them a chance to become evildoers.
How do you control crime in overpopulated slums where there are no physical addresses and evildoers just melt into the masses?
The second approach is to reward hard work. If we don't reward hard work, there will be incentives for people to do the wrong things, like crime. Apart from school ranking, do we emphasize merit elsewhere? Why don't we reward the best farmer every year? While private firms do a lot to promote merit, there are few incentives in the public sector for people to excel. The younger generation must not only hear the virtues of hard work, but must also see tangible rewards. Why can't the government give scholarships to the top 100 students in exams like KCPE and KCSE?
We also must deal w ith an issue no one wants to confront, inequality. While we shall never be equal like the horns of a cow, it pays to close the gap. In developed countries, they have welfare systems that ensure people never reach a desperate stage to start killing others for food or for the basics. But the best way to deal with inequality is to open up opportunities for everyone to have a chance. We also must stop treating each other as lesser beings; we are all equal though we may hold different positions in society.
Equal opportunities should be in education, employment, and even privileges like state honors. This inspires the next generation to work harder. This is how a country grows, through either inspiration or perspiration. Monopolizing such opportunities creates a bitter underclass that has little value for life; in fact, engaging in violent crime, particularly against the "others" may be perceived as heroic. Some cranks suggest violent crime is forced redistribution.
Finally, statistics are very clear; Clinton's boom years in the '90s were associated with [the] lowest crimes rates in the U.S. Turning the economy round is the best weapon to deal with crime ... employed, busy people have no time to engage in crime. An economy that operates 24 hours gives criminals very few chances or opportunities to engage in their favorite hobby.
Crime is costly, not just to the current generation but to the next. We, the current generation, can stop it spilling over. There is no use, working so hard, to prepare for a tomorrow that is not there. If we don't act now, we risk institutionalizing crime.
Crime creates fear that holds our creativity hostage; it stops us from living our lives to the fullest, Crime stops us from pursuing happiness, liberty and our potential, for the few years we may luckily walk on this small planet. Building walls around our beautiful houses, failing to entertain our friends up to the time of the night we want, is not progress, cannot be progress. It is often joked that walls around our houses are increasing in height, and soon they will curve and meet at the top, forming a cave, we shall be back to where it all began! That is not progress ... we can do better than that. ?
X.N. IRAKI, a Lecturer at University of Nairobi's Faculty of Commerce is a Fulbright Scholar in Mississippi.
© 2005, GENERATOR 21.
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