Fare thee well

The tears that are being shed for Mercy Chepksogei Keino, several weeks after her murder (for it was murder, right?) and burial back home in Nandi, betray our impotence in the face of an unrelenting wave of violent crime against ordinary members of Kenyan society. If the media, and what they report, are to be believed, she was not the daughter of a famous or infamous politician, godman, godwoman, business tycoon or musician. Nor was she a familiar face on our TV screens for one exploit or another. Other than getting it right in the classroom, Ms Keino seems to have led a blameless life. That it was cut short is tragic. That it was cut sort in such a brutal manner is calamitous. That no one in authority cares to find out how and why she was killed is a biblical disaster.

Nairobi morphed from a Green City into a Concrete Jungle some time in the early 1990s. It ceased to be a city that welcomed one and all and, instead, it became more evidently polarised between the fatcats in the still-leafy suburbs and the huddled masses in their selections of formal, semi-formal and informal settlements. In the late '70s and '80s, you had your Muthaiga, Kitisuru, Lavington and Red Hill; then your Kileleshwa, Ngong Road and Karen; then Buru Buru, Ngei and Ngumo; then Jericho, Jerusalem, Makadara and Shauri Moyo; and then every one else in the unseen Nairobi: Korogocho, Mathare Valley and Kibera. Each of the residents kept to his own kind, only mingling for the first time in national and provincial Secondary Schools and, where possible, at University. 

Parents were still, to large extent, involved in the lives of their sons and daughters, ensuring that their offspring were imbibing the correct spirit of youth, keeping their noses to the grindstone, and building the foundations for successful futures. The only blot in an otherwise tranquil decade was the increasingly authoritarian KANU dictatorship, characterised by disappearances, unlawful detentions, exiles, and GSU-University Student clashes that entered the annals of infamy. It was the latter that has proven to have had enduring negative effects on the University-going youth of Kenya.

As the calls for a freer Kenya increased volume, and agitation gathered momentum, politicians latched onto the idea of exploiting the youth for their nefarious ends. Thus were born outfits of which the Youth for KANU '92 was the most famous. Once their utility as campaign cannon fodder was exhausted, many young men and women, but particularly women, became playthings for the politicians. They were used, abused and abandoned at will and the HIV/AIDS infection rate among the 19-25 year age-group soared, despite the HIV/AIDS campaign by the government and the abstinence campaign by faith-based organisations such as the catholic and Anglican churches in Kenya.

Events, such as the 'party' Ms Keino attended on that fateful night, have become commonplace and it is normal to witness throngs of college-going men and women parading themselves at parties and other get-togethers attended or organised by political figures (looking to recreate the flower of their youth or indulge in appetites they are ashamed to admit having) where alcohol flows as down the Nile and alcohol-fueled disagreements and belligerent confrontations are commonplace. Ms Keino's death is a reminder of the betrayals the youth have suffered at the hands of politicians and the success that comes by keeping a respectful distance from married, fat men who come bearing gifts (and wine).