We are slowly losing our moral marbles. If it is not the continuing death and destruction on the nation's highways, it is the continuing tango between the Executive and the International Criminal Court or the tug-of-war between the National Assembly and various elements of the Judiciary. There is, however, one abiding constant: when it comes to sexual predation of children and adolescents, we seem to be going from strength to strength.
The predatory habits, both of male and female adults, has contributed to a level of despondence not felt since the day when Mama Lucy Kibaki took the late Prof George Saitoti to task over his remarks regarding the fatalities occurring from the Sachang'wan Fireball. Kenya's limping and whingeing media, is saturated with heart-rending stories of children, some even infants of a few months, falling prey to the sexual predatory habits of family and strangers alike and the utter callousness of the reaction of the forces of law and order during the half-hearted investigations. Every now and then the media and the civil society industry will join hands to highlight a particular incident of utter beastliness and the forces of law and order, led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, will make the appropriate noises about "commencing investigations while quietly burying the whole affair six feet under.
In recent weeks, it is revealed, Kenya has become the preferred destination of sex tourists. The targets of their perverse appetites, shockingly to the uninformed, are the boys and girls of Kenya's coastal towns. Mombasa, Malindi, Kilifi and Kwale are mentioned as being the top destinations of these animals, mainly from Switzerland, Italy, Germany and our old colonial master, Great Britain. Forces of law and order, both here at home and overseas, know who these men, and women, are and choose to turn a blind eye. It remains unclear whether this collective vision impairment is to promote tourism numbers and international trade, or it is simply a callous calculation by foreign powers that if the pederast are targeting Kenyan children, they are not targeting children from their home countries.
It is the reaction of the Kenyan on the street that demonstrates how far we have come in the past few years. Ten years ago, we would not have stood silently as the police gave a sexual predator the equivalent of a slap on the wrist for aggravated sexual assault on a minor that left the minor with a broken back. Kenyans would not just have rallied to the defence of the victim; Kenyans would not have been satisfied until the offenders had their balls nailed to someone's wall, literally and figuratively. But today, other than making well-meaning noises, we stand by and declaim that "it is the responsibility of government to deal with this issues." We don't even have the courage to call them crimes anymore: they are issues.
This is the place where a tunnel-visioned focus on politics and political heroes and villains has taken us. If it is not a conspiracy about Uhuru Kenyatta's election or a diatribe about Raila Odinga's moral cowardice over the ICC, Kenyans are not interested. If it is not the salacious innuendo on morning talk radio, where sexual licentiousness is paraded as a badge of honour for all to hear, Kenyans will not lift a finger to do the right thing. We are the face of the problem. We are the victims, and perpetrators, of the crimes against children. We must change for the situation to improve. If we do not, not even the jaws of hell will welcome us on the Day of Judgment.
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